


the devoured minds

by exiuo



Category: EXO (Band), NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-08 10:24:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14692251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exiuo/pseuds/exiuo
Summary: The nine men all kept journals, it was the only hobby that kept them sane other than being forced to kill the walking dead for survival. Although, that hobby was the main reason for their insanity growing.





	1. Baekhyun

_July 16th, 2018_

Hello. My name is Byun Baekhyun, I’m 26 years old. My birthday is on May sixth. I’m writing this down, so if anyone were to see it in the future where it’s better, you know my story. And if I begin to forget who I am, I can always remember by opening the first page of this journal. I should write down my looks. I don’t see mirrors often, rather those are remain intact. I have brown hair and brown eyes, pink lips and tan skin, a mole located above my upper lip. I live with my eight friends, I’d hope I don’t ever forget their names, so I will name them. Kim Jongin, Oh Sehun, Park Chanyeol, Do Kyungsoo, Kim Junmyeon, Zhang Yixing, Kim Minseok, and Kim Jongdae. They’re my very dear friends, they are the main source of keeping me with reality. We all have chosen we should write down our thoughts, feelings, and what has happened in the same day. We will do this regularly, it’s better to own a healthy habit rather than being forced to vigorously, murder strangers to still be able to walk on earth and draw breathes in. Risking our lives every time we leave our hideout, our anxiety levels rise and the grips on our weapons tighten until our knuckles are white.

My name is Byun Baekhyun, and love is a gun trigger.

 

“Baekhyun, wake up.”

Yixing shook the man awake who was sweating profusely in his sleep, whimpers leaving his lips and words that made no sense. Baekhyun woke up with a scream, and Yixing immediately covered his mouth, a finger over his lips. Slowly, he removed his hand, and tried to calm his shaking figure.

“Was it a dream?”

Yixing sighed, his head turning to the boarded windows with nails stuck into the wall through the wood. Baekhyun’s eyes followed to where he was staring, and he looked down in disappointment. It wasn’t a dream.

“Baekhyun, I understand it’s hard to comprehend, but you have to get used to it soon. It’s been months since the virus spread out all over the globe.”

Yes. Baekhyun remembered the news channel. The date it occurred was October 23rd, 2017 where a woman was speaking of strange events happening not so far from his apartment building. He remembered what he was eating, a tub of vanilla ice cream laid between his legs and a medal spoon in his mouth, he never watched the news until that day when nothing interesting was on. The video evidence was frightening, he thought since it was October it was a cruel prank teenagers decided to pull, but couldn’t see the flaws in the ‘fake’ organs, the ‘artificial’ blood and the disgusting, incredibly realistic ‘makeup’ printed onto their skin. Baekhyun was beginning to actually freak out about it, and shut off the TV. Then he heard his phone buzz, he recognized the familiar sound and it was a red alert. He looked from the TV screen to his phone, taking it into his hand and reading what the alarm was for.

**VIOLENT CRIMINALS IN YOUR AREA. REMAIN INDOORS. IF LOCATED NEARBY, DO NOT ENGAGE. DO NOT ENGAGE.**

What was going on? Why had do not engage been repeated? He had not know at the time, until he looked out his window. The sun shined in his eyes and it took a few seconds to adjust to the brightness then he looked down at the roads stories down. It was calm, people walked down the sidewalks and cars driving at the regular speed. Then he heard a screech. His eyes frantically searched for the source, then a white car drove widely down the road, cars driving out of the way and people screaming, running away. The white car crashed into a convenience store nearby. A woman was crushed beneath the car, screaming and crying for help. The man driving the car opened their door, blood covered his face, he stepped on her hand and continued to walk slowly but turned around. He saw the woman on the ground, she held her hand out for him to take, he staggered closer and dropped to his knee before.. he bit into her hand. Baekhyun shut the curtains quickly. Yet, her scream reverberated in his head like a broken record. Then he heard running footsteps outside of his apartment door, when he walked towards the sound and opened his door. People were leaving their rooms, bags or suitcases in their hands as they desperately tried to scramble out into the hallway like rats leaving a sinking ship. The door across from him was also evacuated, the view of the TV in their living room had on the news.

Baekhyun grabbed at a man, pulling him almost inside of his apartment.

“What the hell is going on?”

“It’s– it’s like a horror movie come to life, you don’t understand it, nobody does. People are eating each other. Right outside this apartment building people are eating each other alive and the news is saying a virus, an epidemic has spread and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop man. So, I suggest you leave too before they come inside and you got nowhere else to go.”

Baekhyun really didn’t understand a word the man was saying. A virus? Epidemic? People eating each other? His hand remained clutching his arm, until it was aggressively pulled away and he was snapped back to reality.

“I’m not dying here when I got family!!”

Then he escaped like the rest of them. If what he said was true, this was no epidemic, it was more than that, it could be like that right now but if the virus doesn’t stop like the man said, this could take over the world. Baekhyun watched as families or random people who lived lonesome, ran down the hallway, squeezing into the elevator, running down the staircase and the sounds of screams. From the amount of people and the panic, there was no doubt people would be trampled. Baekhyun slammed his door and locked it, the wise thing to do was to leave, but it was also a huge risk. There was already one of those _things_ outside, too close to his apartment and if he leaves, there is a large chance he won’t make it out alive. So, he isolated himself in his room, the padding of feet didn’t stop until around half an hour later. Then three hours passed when the chaos had become quiet outside. It was dead silent. Baekhyun tried to turn on the TV, but it wouldn’t open up to the news channel, or any channel. The screen remained black. Baekhyun thought about that man’s words.

_I’m not dying here when I got family!!_

Family. A familiar word that yet seemed so far from home. Where was his family now? Would they care, considering they kicked him out. Do they wonder what’s going on outside? Do they ever think about him? About his current state? Baekhyun wasn’t born into a normal family, it seemed all they cared about was having fun which included sex and alcohol. If only they knew that by abusing it, they would have something they never wanted. Like a child. Like Baekhyun. They fed him scraps of their leftovers, never full water bottles and never gave him any toys to play with. By living a life of staying in his room, he became accustomed to the silence and his ‘family’. It was until he was five years old, he began to go outside without his parents consent, not like they cared. It would be fine if he left and didn’t come back. To their dismay, he always came back. Eventually. He would usually not come back until a few days later. Due to he had found someone, someone he thought was worthy of the name friend. Baekhyun couldn’t remember his name even if he tried, but he would stay at his real family’s house, they would feed him real food and drinks filled to the top. Let him sleep on an actual bed with a sheet and multiple blankets and pillows. Baekhyun also thought he found people he thought was worth of the name family. A father who was worth calling Dad. A mother who was worth calling Mom.

Soon, he moved into their house. His biological parents didn’t realize it, and if they did, they wouldn’t care. Why couldn’t he remember their faces? As he thought of the memories, he saw them but their faces were blurred out. Above all, what happened once he moved out? No, why was he thinking of this now? Perhaps, he wanted them back, to feel warmth again.

Baekhyun woke up from his nap to nothing more than the quiet, and when he opened the door, he knew that the world truly has gone mad.

The walls and carpet floors were blood-stained, in the corner of his eye he saw a hand, he was afraid of stepping out of his apartment to investigate. Once he did though, there was more than he had expected to see and could never prepare himself in life to a view like this. There were dead bodies laid on the ground, as he could see there were four on the left down the hall. They either laid on their stomach or back, or were pushed against the wall. Their throats scratched open along with chunks of flesh missing from their arms or legs, pools of blood around them, dying the blue carpet a purple or brown. Baekhyun stared, until he felt liquid rushing up his throat and vomit left his mouth. He bent over with his arms hugging his stomach, then coughed and spat the rest remaining in the corner of his mouth. He wiped spit with his shirt, breathing in and out eagerly and the nasty taste in his mouth was difficult to endure. Brushing his teeth would be the best to do, but if the TV wasn’t operating then the best guess was the water wasn't running either.

Baekhyun didn’t care and couldn’t bear it, so quickly brushed his teeth with no water available to him and wiped his mouth with a towel. When he walked out of the restroom, there was a looming figure standing near his bed.

“Hello?”

A gargle was the response, and it slowly turned to face him. Baekhyun immediately regretted speaking. It was the same man, the man who he questioned earlier and pushed him away so he could leave to his family.

“I.. I thought you were going to see your family?”

His words began to stumble over each other and his lips were trembling.

“Did you miss your ride?”

Baekhyun reached for the convenient baseball bat behind his bed, pulling it out with it hitting against the wall and headboard.

“I’m sorry, I can’t give you one.”

At that moment, the man charged towards him and his features came into the light. His eyes were milky white, his previously slicked back hair was messy and a few chunks had been ripped out leaving bald spots. Blisters decorated the sides of his face, his skin almost seemed like it was cracking like a porcelain doll that fell from the shelf. Baekhyun rose the bat, until he froze in that stance. What was he doing? Was he about to kill a man? Then his eyes widened when he noticed his mouth was torn open, the sight of his bottom row of teeth revealed. Baekhyun lost the strength in his arms and retreated back into the bathroom. Why didn’t he do it? It was clear by now, the thing outside the bathroom door was no human. Not anymore. He couldn’t do it though, it was strange, it was murder, he couldn’t. He shut his eyes tight, his hands holding onto the bat tighter when he heard the man begin to bang its arms against the door, trying to get in. If he managed to break through, would he be eaten? Would he be bit, and turn into one of those things?

If he had decided to kill it, he would have to wait until it forgot he was there.

Time was passing too slow, the clock in the bathroom read it had only been fifteen minutes. He laid against the wall, he assumed it could smell him and stuffed the mat to the door, blocking it off. It seemed to have been effective, ten minutes later he couldn’t hear grunting or banging. Baekhyun slowly moved from the floor to onto his feet, holding the bat and his other hand reaching for the doorknob. The sight of the man was already a horrible thing to look at, he didn’t want to be hindered by throwing up. With a deep breath in, he moved the mat with his foot and pulled open the door. The thing was on the other side of the bed, while Baekhyun stood at the opposite, its head twitched when a new scent invaded the room, then his gaze lifted to Baekhyun’s. In its view, it was a tinted green as if he was color blind, when he moved his view was all over the place but managed to catch his prey by being unpredictable. As he walked slowly, it walked faster and followed around the bed, it was faster than Baekhyun expected and he was shook up. He yelled the moment he swung the bat, knocking it in the head and onto the ground. Baekhyun kept his eyes shut, then opened them when he heard a noise erupt from it. It reached for his leg and grabbed his ankle, so when he tried to walk back he fell to the ground along with it. He continued to yell as he tried to crawl back.

Was he going to die? Will this be the way he goes out? To be eaten by another, only to come back as one of those things? He didn’t want that.

Baekhyun let out a cry in desperation, kicking him away in the face then hitting his fist against the hand on his ankle. As he was set free, he tried to back up into the bathroom, but it stood up and loomed over him. The bat was too far, he wouldn’t be able to grab it in time. He panted, staring up at it as he walked towards him until it was near his feet and he closed his eyes and covered his ears. Then screamed when he heard a gunshot. Baekhyun opened his eyes, sweat slipping down his forehead and tears leaving his eyes, he saw the corpse on the ground and lifted his head shakily to see a person. A real person, a human.

“Wh.. Who are you?”


	2. Yixing

_July 16th, 2018_

Hi, my name is Zhang Yixing. I’m Chinese, 26 years old, and was previously an actor before Earth was consumed by Lurkers. Or the things outside, that eat other people for the sake of their aching hunger. I feel like I have a connection to them, almost like I understand them the most. Lurkers have this desperate hunger inside them, if they could contain it, perhaps they wouldn’t eat others. Who knows. But they’re body is forcing them to open their jaw and bite into everything that moves, whether it’s a human, animal, or someone they know and adore. The people I have met see them as monsters, who know what they’re doing and don’t care. I don’t believe in that, I believe who they were before they were infected by the virus, are still in their somehow. Screaming at themselves to stop, who try to stop themselves from ripping open someone’s stomach and eating them alive. I don’t blame the people who see them in a different point of view though, like a few friends I know who do, but my friend Baekhyun believes in what I think about them. Sometimes the others who think otherwise become angry and frustrated after a hard day, whom then take it out on the both of us, other than the three men who aren’t on either sides and just try to calm them down. Perhaps, they’re angry because their family was taken away, or someone they love.

My name is Zhang Yixing, and shame is a gun trigger.

 

Yixing was filming a movie in Korea so he was staying at a hotel near the production building for better access. They were filming a war related movie, he was one of the soldiers and few main charaters. To be cast as that meant he would often get dirty, and learned a thing or two on how to act if he was ever in the military, he understood a lot more, not enough though. He thought it was nice to experience something new like this, especially if it involved the real world and it gave him more knowledge without actually being involved in it.

“Makeup team! Yixing has arrived, get to it please!”

Yixing placed his bag aside, before plopping himself in the chair. Traveling was extremely tiring, so was acting in general for long months without being able to be with family. His family remained back in China, where they still thoroughly supported him by sending him gifts, video-chatting him when he had the time, and associating with them everyday. It was a true bliss not everyone could have to own a supportive family, which is why was was internally and externally grateful for them. As the lady smeared mud on his cheek, then wiping it off to make it appear seem dry, his phone began to ring.

“Give me a moment.”

Yixing apologized and walked to the corner of the room to answer the call, it was his mother.

“Hello?”

”Son, have you seen the news? Are you safe? I’ve heard it began in Korea.”

”What has? What are you speaking about?”

“Yixing, son, remain indoors. There is something going around, a virus, apparently it started where you are, in Korea, but has been seen here in China also. I’ve seen it. Folks have been eating each other! It sounds fake, but people have been evacuating their houses and leaving.”

Then there was a scream. Yixing turned around, walking from the makeup corner to the set where one of the actors was acting strange.

“What was that?”

“Mother..”

The actor tackled another person part of the cast, scratching at his chest until he ripped through the fabric and the skin. They screamed as they were torn apart, their insides being ripped out of his chest and eaten intensely.

“It’s here.”

Yixing hurriedly directed the girls and the cast outside to escape, while the thing continued to eat. He locked other doors that people could possibly come through and boarded it up, but when he turned around after moving a chair, it was a few steps away from him. He grabbed back onto the chair, waited a few seconds for it to come closer before lifting the chair and crashed it into its shoulder. He quickly left the building after before it could get back up, he noticed he was still on the call and held his phone to his ear.

“Mom?”

“Son.. don’t blame your sister..”

Yixing heard a gargling noise then the sound of his poor mother throwing up on the other side of the line.

“What happened? Mother, what did she do?”

“Forgive her, please, she never meant to. She isn’t feeling well right now, she doesn’t know what she is doing. I’m sorry. I should have protected her, right?”

“Mother.. where is she?”

“Oh, she’s here.. here with me.”

“Please, get away from her.”

“It’s too late son. But please remember this, if this continues to spread, don’t let your heart fill with hatred. Continue to feed it with hope and optimism like you always do, you have made me so proud from how you grew up to be such a wonderful man. When you survive, marry a kind woman. Or a kind man. I hope he or she.. makes you happy.. just as you make me so so happy.”

After she finished speaking, groans replaced her words and shrieks. Yixing couldn’t bear to hear it, and hung up. His mother and sister were dead. No doubt if they were, so were the rest of his family. As much as he wanted to cry until his face was red and sore, he didn’t have the time to and ran to where his car was. He needed to go back to the hotel, if it had spread here like his mother assumed, he should barricade himself until it dies down. Perhaps he should give a fellow friend a call for help. Yixing noticed the roads were normal, so he drove like every other day and at the speed limit, or around it. The silence and sounds of people talking went on naturally. If that one actor was infected from the production building, then it must be taking over the entire facility right now. The thought shook him up and a chill danced down his spine, then he heard a screech of a car and saw a white car wildly drive past him until it crashed into a convenience store. With a woman stuck underneath. Yixing predicted what happened, and didn’t want to be in the middle of the inevitable, the chaos would soon happen so the speed limit didn’t matter. His hotel wasn’t far from where the crash was, which worried him. Once he arrived, people were pooling out already and thought there would be no time to go up the stairs or elevator without being trampled or slowed down by others.

The hotel was modern, beautiful really. In the front there were large cubes stacked on top of each other, there were three that were each attached to each other. Yixing drove his car near one, and got out only to stand on top of his head, then jump with his hands grabbing onto the edge. With a grunt, he pulled himself up and stood upon the people, watching everything unravel like the strands of a sweater. He realized he didn’t have the time, and walked across until he found the apartment rooms with a balcony. Yixing stepped back, before running and landing into the inside of it. As he stepped in, he counted the floors below him. He was on the third, his room was on the fifth. When he entered the room, it was abandoned and he saw the hallways were filled with people still scrambling to leave and shoving into each other like it was every man for himself. Many of them seemingly believed in that. Yixing assumed the only way up, was to jump more and higher for the sake of entering his apartment. He found a stool and set it outside, accidentally hitting his head at first and rubbing his aching head. Then he jumped and his arms held onto the balcony rail, gasping out of fright and looked down, if he fell he would certainly break a few bones and crack his head open which will lead to his death.

Again, he manages to pull his body upwards and swing his leg over the rail, then falling onto his back. The room was left a mess with clothes and other essentials scattered, it seems they were definitely in a rush. When Yixing opened the door, it wasn’t as crowded and he slipped past them to make it up the stairs instead of those going down, but once he made it to his room he realized something. He forgot his bag in the production building. He couldn’t possibly go back now, with all he went through to make it up there. So, he stepped back until he felt the wall connect to his back, before running and ramming his shoulder into the door. It didn’t open. After doing it twice, he saw the cracks at the edges of the door begin to stick out, then with the fourth try there was a hole. Yixing held the doorframe and shoved his foot around the opening, where he continued until it was big enough for him to squeeze himself in. At last, he was in his apartment.

He searched for anything that would be useful in a fight. When he saw a knife in a kitchen, he remembered something in the past his father had gifted him, which earned a scolding from his mother.

 

_“Son, you know how there is tons of bad people in the world?”_

_The elder man asked his seven year old son who laid on the grass with his eyes gazing at the clouds. He turned his head to look at his father, where he nodded._

_“Well, I wouldn’t want my son to become older and not know how to defend himself if any criminals decided to mess with you. I bought you something that would be useful, but only use it in self-defense okay! Never be a bad person.”_

_Yixing sat up and immediately nodded with a determined and serious expression, which earned a chuckle out of his father._

_”Good good. I know you will do great things in the future, people will look at you in adoration and love in their eyes. You will be known.”_

_His father then pulled out a box from behind him that had been waiting, sitting on the grass until it was picked up. He opened the black box where the inside was red, and a trench knife laid delicately placed above a cloth. Yixing awe’d in admiration, the blade and handle were a spotless black, it would be a situation if he was walking in the dark and the knife was on the floor._

_“Keep it safe.. from your mother. She’ll kill me.”_

 

He remembered seeing his laughing face after, and when his mother found out he was trying to keep it from revealing he found it purely hilarious. Yixing pulled the suitcase from beneath the bed, popping it open and finding the same little box from years ago stuffed between his clothes. He always brought it with him when he traveled. He knew this wouldn’t be enough though, considering his lack of skills and it meant he would have to be close to it. He needed a _gun._ Thankfully, Yixing knew a special man who would have more than one. More than a single person should have, really.

Yixing pulled out his phone and searched for his contact, it read _Junmyeon_ , the last sent text was not too long ago. He was a business man who didn’t have the time to contact his friends or family consistently, he lived here in Korea so he thought he would make his way around. Yixing though didn’t know where he was and if the virus had traveled there, if not it would be there soon, so if they were to have a hideout, a nine-story apartment wouldn’t be so bad. He pressed his finger against the telephone icon. It answered after a few rings.

“What do you want?”

“Hello to you too, Junmyeon, I understand if you’re busy–”

“Busy? Busy trying to keep myself alive, hell yea I’m busy.”

“So I assume it’s where you are too, my mother said it started in China, and it was already here in Korea. Listen, I’m–”

“You never told me you were here.”

Yixing heard the sound of wheels screeching, he must be in a car.

“Good though. Tell me where you are, you must be staying in a stable apartment. I could already guess where you are going with this, you want to form a little get-together and you don’t have any guns. And here we are. Don’t worry,”

Junmyeon looked in the backseat, where splattered blood was slapped onto the seats but also his open luggage. Inside were enough guns for more or less ten people. He stared at the blood for a few seconds before focusing back on the road. It was a life or death situation and didn’t have time to become infected.

“I got you, so where are you? I hope you aren’t far.”

After Yixing told him the address, he hung up, exhaling a big sigh. He truly was thankful he had someone like Junmyeon. Yixing had already explained which floor and room he was on, that there was a hole in it and he wouldn’t miss it. For now, he would wait for his arrival. But around fifteen minutes later, he heard a scream and stood up, startled with his fingers in the trench knife handle. Then the door open suddenly.

“Junmyeon?”


	3. Junmyeon

_July 16th, 2018_

My name is Kim Junmyeon. I am 27 years old at the moment, my birthday was two months ago on May twenty-second. It was a new kind of event, considering we had already been a few months into the pandemic, and I didn’t do what I did every birthday since I became an adult. Nothing. I was usually too busy, I could be meeting with a another company to discuss a matter or have them sign a contract where our companies could have some relations. Or tracking financial measures to help prepare a transition. The birthday I had two months ago, I never told them until Yixing spoke up about it the day it occurred. It was the most embarrassed I have ever felt in years, especially my high position in the modern society and the envious people in the world I lived in. Of course, Yixing wanted to do what every birthday party had, a cake and blow out the candles. He really hadn’t change the last time I had saw him. So he forced everyone, or moreover, everyone was happy to go out and find a dessert like cake. I thought it was dangerous and ignorant to go out and risk our lives for something stupid as a birthday.. it was nice though. I had to admit. We couldn’t find a cake, so we traveled to find ingredients that weren’t spoiled so we can bake our own cake. They got candles, decorations to put on the cake. In the end, it was pretty crappy. The icing was slipping off the cake, the insides were too moist, too sweet for my taste buds. But to see the others faces scrunch up, with their clothes covered in flour and yolk was a relaxing thing to see. It was a happy day. I’m truly grateful for someone like Yixing.

My name is Kim Junmyeon, and fear is a gun trigger.

 

Junmyeon was a traveler, it was natural to travel as part of a huge business. He was landing in Korea soon, where earlier he was in Taiwan, he thought they were located there but turns out the man he was having controversy with moved to Korea. It wasn’t so far, but it irritated him he wasted his time. The other business man was supposed to 3/4 of their wine collection over to them after they had lost a contract. They never agreed to the end of the bargain, and Junmyeon’s company had lost nearly a million.

_“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Korea’s Pohang International Airport. For your comfort and safety–”_

He didn’t bother to listen to the dull voice over the speaker phone, and kept his eyes out the window where he watched as the wheels connect to the ground. The plane began to slow down, until it came to a stop. Junmyeon noticed something, the entire area was completely deserted, no groups of people waiting for their loved ones. Had the staff not allowed them to leave the building for it would have been too dangerous? Speaking of staff, there was a lack of them in the area, other than the ones beginning to jog towards his plane. It could most likely be nothing. As he stepped down from the plane with his guards holding his luggage behind him, he held his phone to his ear, attempting to call the wine company. No answer. He sighed, frustrated then stopped when he noticed people were beginning to run out of the airport building. People with their luggage's and children ran to the parking lot, had there been an accident? It’s when people began to tackle each other is what began to concern him.

“Is something going on?”

Junmyeon tapped one of the staff’s shoulder, who didn’t answer him at first.

“I asked you something, sir.”

He forcefully turned him around, then crinkled his nose when he breathed in his face. Junmyeon was close to yelling at him until he was pushed to the ground, the staff tried to bite at his face. His security guard tore the man off of him, but he only lunged at them and bit into his shoulder, ripping strings of his flesh off.

“Shit.”

The second guard pulled out his gun from his jacket and aimed it at the staff.

“No!”

Junmyeon pushed the gun and the bullet shot through the staff’s shoulder, then forced him to look at him.

“Who do you think you are to be shooting a civilian?”

“With all due respect, that’s no civilian, sir.”

His eyes moved to the staff, who continued to eat the strings of flesh and Junmyeon grabbed the gun from his security before shooting him in the head.

“You’re right.”

Screams erupted from behind him and when he turned around, people were falling off the stairs when suddenly one of the people on the plane began to claw at someone’s eyes. What the hell was going on? Junmyeon stopped to listen carefully, he heard the sounds of many footsteps and he looked to where the airport building was, people, near the hundreds began to run to where the plane had landed. It seems he wouldn’t be able to collect the wine for the company. Junmyeon looked around for any accessible vehicles, then saw a black car and ran towards it, where his security guard followed too. He told him to seat in the back but put his luggage besides one suitcase in the trunk. Junmyeon waited until the security got inside the car with the one specific case.

“You were successful as for keeping me safe, I applaud you, but you will be a burden if you travel with me any further.”

“What?”

Junmyeon lifted the gun and shot him in the chest, pulling him out of the car and shutting the door once the body hit the floor. He sat in the front seat, finding the keys in the cup holder and starting the car. As he drove, he came close to the crowd of people and many began to run towards the car. Instead of being careful, he took a good sight of whether or not they looked like they would tear him apart, most seemed to be so he hit them with the car. After hitting a speed bump, his head hit the top of the car and he hissed, holding onto his head but managed to find an empty area and escape through it. Finally, the road is what he drove on. That’s when he received a call.

“What do you want?”

“Hello to you too.”

Junmyeon checked the caller ID, and realized it was an old friend. Zhang Yixing. He had called for backup basically, the hotel he was staying at was the same as the airport.

“The hotel shouldn’t be far from Pohang airport, I’m on the fifth floor, room A5. My door has a hole in it.”

“How wise.”

“Hey, it was the only solution I had, I couldn’t go back to the production department. You know, I call them Lurkers.”

“I understand, I will be there soon though.”

“Thank you. And it’s good to talk to you again.”

“Likewise, if those.. ‘Lurkers’ spread, we will probably be talking a lot more.”

After driving for a few miles, Junmyeon arrived at the hotel. He took off his coat and tie, feeling less heavy on his shoulders and grabbed the blood-stained suitcase from the backseat. He left the car and quickly walked towards the building then flinched when he heard a gunshot and he looked down to the sidewalk. There was a bullet. Junmyeon looked around, before entering hotel, the blood splattered the walls and broken items decorated the ground. Fifth floor. He found the elevator, but it didn’t work, had the electricity gone out? He didn’t notice the lightbulbs weren’t on, it was still daylight and there were many windows. Broken windows. Junmyeon jogged up the stairs, skipping two steps each jump until he made it to the fifth floor and walked down the hallway. He searched for a door with a hole in it, then found one and saw the plaque next to the door that read A5. The moment Junmyeon opened the door and entered, he heard a scream from a few levels up.

When he turned his head to look at Yixing, he was enguled into a hug to his surprise. When he pulled away, he smiled at Junmyeon brightly.

“It’s so good to see you.”

“Uh, yea, same.”

“At least try to look like you missed me too.”

Yixing rolled his eyes, taking the suitcase and plopping it onto the bed. He clicked the lock and opened it, revealing guns stacked on top of each other.

“Which one do you think I should use? I want something small.”

“Like a pistol?”

“Yea sure.”

“Well, you can have this one. It’s a Beretta M9, semi-automatic.”

“Firing range?”

”Up to 100.”

“Can I have two?”

Junmyeon nodded, grabbing two of the pair and handed it to Yixing. He then took one for himself, a 44 Remington Magnum, then swung a shotgun over his shoulder. A benelli nova.

“You look like a cowboy!”

“Shut up. I heard a scream around three floors up, there could be a surviver.”

Yixing nodded, then helped Junmyeon grab the guns and stuff them in a gym bag, where thankfully all of them fit and Yixing hung it over his shoulder. They both ran out and up the stairs, hoping Junmyeon’s prediction was correct and they weren’t on the wrong floor and it wasn’t too late. Then they began to open each door, looking inside and trying to find where the scream had came from. It was until Junmyeon gestured for Yixing to come, and they both slowly creeped in and Yixing saw a man on the ground. Where a Lurker was walking towards him. Junmyeon told him to not make any sudden movements, he couldn’t help but to walk from their hiding spot and take out his gun. With the safety off, he aimed for the head and pulled the trigger. The man screamed again when he heard the gunshot, then backed up when the body fell near his feet. He panted heavily, staring up at the man and the other who was behind him who seemed annoyed.

“Who are you?”

Junmyeon and Yixing looked at each other, Junmyeon held his hand up to his neck and moving it left and right. It meant no. Yixing slowly turned to the man.

“I’m Yixing!”

“Jesus christ.”

Junmyeon rolled his eyes.

“He’s Junmyeon.”

The man stared at both of them, standing up and reached for the bat on the ground but Junmyeon stopped him by aiming his gun at him.

“No no! Junmyeon stop.”

Yixing grabbed his gun before placing it back in his hand, the man stared a them with his arm outstretched towards the bat, fear covering his face. When he received the okay signal, he grabbed it.

“What’s your name?”

“Uh, ah.. I’m Baekhyun. Hey, aren’t you that Chinese actor? Or, used to be..”

Baekhyun looked down at the corpse, his bat gently hitting its shoulder before stepping over it and towards the two men. He took Yixing’s hand in his, closing his eyes as he held it close to his chest. His heart beating. His breath catching up.

“Thank you so much.”

Yixing relaxed, he somehow didn’t feel strange at all for him to be holding his hand. It was something his fans would do for him all the time, and he enjoyed it thoroughly. Yet, this hand hold was different compared to the kind he received from his fans.

“Of.. of course.”

“Can we get a move on now? We should check this place out, I have a feeling we’re not alone.”

Baekhyun let go of Yixing’s hand and nodded.

“Yes, there must be more of them.”

“No, I wouldn’t doubt there are more Lurkers in the building, but someone tried to shoot me outside. I saw the bullet and the dent in the sidewalk, I couldn’t see anyone, but he could be on the roof. He or she could be trying to claim this place as his territory.”

“Lurkers..?”

Baekhyun softly questioned, to which Yixing nodded.

“It’s what we call them.”

“I see.”

“Well, I suggest you put on something more presentable, I don’t think it’d be safe to go out wearing a shirt with holes in it and basketball shorts.”

Junmyeon suggested, Baekhyun seemed embarrassed but nodded in agreement before going to his closet. After he pulled on some clothes, he wore jeans and a hoodie over a fresh shirt. Junmyeon then handed him one of the guns from Yixing’s gym bag, Baekhyun took it with ease and shoved it in his back pocket.

“I suggest you leave the bat.”

“But I like it.”

“If that’s your chosen weapon, I suggest a medal one, if we find a store we can take one. But that wooden one won’t help you with crap.”

Baekhyun nodded immediately, he seemed to be obedient and understand what Junmyeon said. He had already placed his trust into their hands. After, they left the room and explored that floor and killing Lurkers if they crept by. It was until they secured the 9th floor, they found stairs to the roof. Baekhyun followed in first with Yixing behind him, he opened the roof door and aimed his gun for any sign of movement. There was no one.

“These two floors and the roof are cleared I guess. Should we move to the rest?”

Baekhyun walked out, Junmyeon and Yixing nodded then turned around and down the stairs, but they noticed Baekhyun wasn’t following them. They quickly ran back up, and they found him with his arms behind his back and a gun to his head. The man holding him close peeked his head out from behind him, a sadistic smile spreading across his lips.

“Hello.”


	4. Jongdae

_July 16th, 2018_

Yo. My name is Kim Jongdae. I am 25 years old, September twenty-first, 1992, year of the Monkey! I’m not sure as to why I remember that, I suppose it’s something entertaining to know. But! My friends have all started journals, and it seemed fun so I’m pretty excited. They had said they will be writing certain things about themselves, so if they ever forget they can open the first page. Well, first things first was my name, age, birthday– my job should be next! I see, well, since I was nineteen, I have been an assassin. Many people see us as thrill seekers, I have to admit, we truly are. I was given a document by document on a certain person someone wants me to kill with pay, it is a way to live, money comes in fast from people who can’t stand to commit murder or hold a gun. In my view, the world is pretty shitty. My family was never there for me. I hated all my friends within all three schools I attended. I was expelled in high school for stabbing a teacher, in my opinion she had it coming to her! She was so mean, and ugly! She had a big forehead and a wrinkly face, when I told her that she was so mad, her face looked as red as an apple! I was seen as strange, but I suppose attractive so girls in my school saw me as a ‘bad boy’ who broke the rules for fun. I never dated them, they were never interesting enough and would use me just as a show off. It was irritating, so I was glad I was expelled. Now that the world has practically ended though, money and killing people don’t matter. Nobody cares. The people who are alive just want survival, even if it means killing others. It’s so selfish. But my friends, they are so kind to me and fun, I love them so much!! I’m glad that if I were to die tomorrow, I would die knowing I had amazing friends.

My name is Kim Jongdae, and abandonment is a gun trigger.

 

_“Jongdae!!”_

_Jongdae heard his mother scream his name, but the nineteen year old stayed in his room. He faced the wall with his finger sliding down the knife, his blood mixing with the blood of his father’s. His lips slowly curled into a smile when he heard his mother’s footsteps come closer and closer, accidentally letting a laugh escape him. His mother then forcefully opened the door and continued to screamed at him._

_“This is the last straw!! I can’t do this, you have crossed the line multiple times but this time you killed him! You killed the man I love, you are going to be sentenced to life in jail and you will get beat by every single man in there and die a painful death!! I regret ever giving birth to a mad man like you, I don’t know where you got this from!”_

_She walked towards him and grabbed his hair, but Jongdae was fast and caught her wrist then swung the knife into her stomach. She stood there, stuck until she coughed up blood and it splattered onto Jongdae’s face._

_“I got it from the man you fucked. Not the man in the kitchen dead, but the one you met at the club and spread your legs for his big cock like a whore. You think I never knew? Our blood types are different, it doesn’t match with my father’s. I’m not stupid unlike you, maybe you should check what man’s sperm you receive from next time. Actually, you won’t.”_

_Jongdae pulled the blade out from her stomach, then pushed her onto her back. He stood up, almost falling then threw his head back with laughter erupting from inside him._

_“Wow! You really are nothing but a stupid bitch! God..”_

_He sighed, flipping his hair back and wiping his sweat with his sweatshirt then the blood on his face. It only smeared. Jongdae didn’t feel any remorse or guilt after killing his parents, he left the house after stuffing his backpack with his clothes and normal essentials. When he opened the front door, that was when a man stood there wearing sunglasses._

_“Hello, I’d like to have a discussion with you. I like your work.”_

Jongdae gasped and sat up in his bed, looking around his bedroom for anyone but only found his dog awake and alert at his feet. The little white dog crawled towards him and into his lap, staring up at him. Jongdae turned his head then checked the watch on his wrist. 4:36. He sighed, then looked down at the adorable dog in his lap and kissed her nose.

“Morning sugar, early bird gets the worm, right?”

He moved his legs a bit so Sugar, his dog, would receive the sign to move. After she did so, he let his legs slide off the bed and his feet met the floor. Behind his bed was a wall of glass, while the other two walls were normal and the kitchen was on the opposite side. Jongdae did get paid well. He stared down at the city that was lit with lights, the sun would be up in an hour, so it would be beautiful to watch it rise. He placed his hand against the glass, it was October so the air was cold. His breathing fogged up the glass, so he let his hand leave and he walked towards his kitchen where Sugar followed him. Jongdae prepared himself a zucchini bread oatmeal with a bowl of sliced bananas, he added vegetables and toasted walnuts into the bowl. He placed his food onto the counter, then felt a something furry tickle his ankle. Sugar stared up at him, she then pranced over to her bowls and looked back at him.

“I’m sorry Sugar baby, I almost forgot, thank you for reminding me. You’re truly a doll.”

Jongdae poured into her food bowl, then stuffing the cup back into the large bag in the cabinet. He took the second bowl and added water, carefully placing it back onto the floor next to the food. After he peacefully ate his food, scrolling through an app on his phone until he received a text.

Name / Kritanta Yun.

Age / 22

Gender / Female

Location / *****

Payment / $30,000

He smiled at his screen. A new request. He replied quickly.

_Consider it done._

A few minutes after, he received an email he was given the same amount of money listed.

“I’ll be back soon Sugar baby, after I finish I will walk you around the city to celebrate and give you your favorite foods.”

Jongdae finished off the rest of his bananas and washed the bowls, placing them back into the cabinet then slipped on his shoes and cute dinosaur hoodie with the plates of a stegosaurus going down from the top of his head to mid-back. It was to give him an innocent look. He leaned down, planting a kiss on the little dog’s nose and waving goodbye as he closed the door. A dog really is a man’s best friend. She was the only thing alive he loved and took care of other than himself. If he lost her, he wouldn’t know what to think. After he sat in the driver’s seat, he glanced in the backseat where sat his second precious thing to him. His sniper rifle. He drove towards the destination, then to the opposite side of the street where there was a multi-story building. He arrived to the roof after taking the elevator, he removed his sniper hidden inside his hoodie and laid down with his sniper placed in front of him. Jongdae took out his phone and stared at the woman’s photo, then peering through the scope with every person who exits the apartment building. Soon, he saw her walking down the sidewalk, near the convenience store. He carefully made his aim, but was startled by a screech and looked up from the scope to look down at the road. Jongdae watched as a white vehicle driving dangerously before crashing into the woman _he_ was meant to kill. She was stuck under the car, screaming for her life. The man who drove exited the vehicle, then noticed her, and Jongdae never thought he would see this in his entire life. The man dug his teeth into her hand, before moving onto her arm. She screamed so loud, he felt a need to cover his ears. Somehow, he pitied her and moved more to the right with his rifle then looked into the scope. With one shot, he managed to kill her instantly with a shot to the head. It would end her suffering quickly.

When Jongdae arrived home, his small apartment home was abandoned, he found people trying to kill him with their jaws wide open. Luckily, if things went wrong, he brought a handgun and knife, so he killed almost eight of them to get to his room. He felt his stomach turn in an unpleasant way, he had a bad feeling as he saw his door creaked open with a blood on his doorknob. Jongdae pushed open the door slowly, usually Sugar would greet him immediately trying to jump onto him and he would grab her to hold her close to his face, receiving licks all over. He shut the door behind him, Sugar had yet to come to him. He then heard the sound of her whimpering, his eyes widened and he ran to the kitchen. She wasn’t there. He looked in the living room and on his bed, she wasn’t there until he looked under his bed and found the source of her cries. He gently clicked his tongue a few times.

“Sugar.. Sugar baby, come on. Daddy is here, what’s wrong?”

He shuffled back as heard the sounds of her moving, then saw her blood stained white fur. Jongdae felt himself begin to choke up and his eyes fill with tears, his hand shakily reached out to touch the bite mark on her back, then looked at his fingers that were covered in blood.

“Baby.. why.. why didn’t you run? Daddy is upset, come on we can fix you up right?”

She growled at him when he attempted to reach out to her, he flinched back and she whimpered once more. He didn’t understand. This couldn’t be happening.

“Please don’t do this.”

Sugar crawled beneath the bed, but her nose peaked out from beneath and he could see her face. She laid her lands on her paws, her blinking slow and ears twitching softly. Jongdae could only watch, watch as she stared up at him until she closed her eyes and was unable to hear her breathing. Jongdae quickly grabbed her and held her in his arms, trying to find a source of her heart beating but was unsuccessful.

“No no, Sugar, no. Why couldn’t.. why? Why did this happen?”

Jongdae held her close to his neck, sobbing into her fur and her blood coating his fingers. Overtime, her warmth began to leave her and all he could feel was her fur against his skin and the cold blood on his hands. His source of happiness was gone, his only happiness was gone when she was only running around his feet a few hours ago as happy as she can be. Why couldn’t this world let him be happy? He shakily stood up from his knees, almost falling then placing her on his pillow, leaving to grab her favorite toy that was a little fox and gently rested it next to her. Jongdae ran his finger through her fur, scratching behind her ear for the last time.

“I.. I love you Sugar. Daddy loves you so much, he’ll.. he’ll miss you a lot.”

He wiped the tears off his cheeks, laughing weakly as he couldn’t help but stare at the poor dog.

“You’ve always loved my bed.”

Jongdae left the apartment after that, jogging down the sidewalk until he began to see more of those things and ran towards the apartment Kritanta lived at. He made it inside and ran all nine flights of stairs until he made it to the roof, panting heavily and dropping to his knees only to cry more. He hit his fist against the ground, yelling ‘why’ until it became nothing but quiet whispers to himself. He then heard another car screech, and stood up, walking towards the end of the roof. Jongdae laid down once he saw a car pulling up, he took out his sniper and placed it properly. He needed to get his mind off her. He aimed at the man with a suitcase who left the car, but his shaky movements from crying caused him to miss and he quickly rolled over so the man wouldn’t see him. For around fifteen minutes, he laid on the ground, staring at the sky until he heard footsteps and he stood up with a grunt to hide. Jongdae heard the metal door open, he heard multiple men talking but wasn’t able to make out the words. He peeked to see two men walking down the steps, but one of them was late in following them so he took this as an advantage and ran towards him from behind. He grabbed his arms and shoved them against his back, the blonde/pink head stiffened. He opened his mouth to speak but felt the gun barrel against his head.

“Please don’t..”

“Quiet.”

It seemed the two men noticed their friend weren’t behind them, and they came back quickly to find him apprehended. Jongdae let them see his face, and he stared back at them with a sweet smile.

“Hello.”

“Please, let go of our friend.”

Jongdae recognized the one who spoke, it was a Chinese actor, Zhang Yixing. And the one next to him was a Korean CEO named Kim Junmyeon. The one he held onto seemed to be a nobody.

“You’re Yixing.”

“And you’re the notorious assassin, Kim Jongdae, am I correct?”

“It seems we all know each other here, Junmyeon.”

“Aside from him, may you let him go? He is a friend of ours.”

“Why should I?”

Jongdae hesitated and his voice broke, he felt another breakdown coming but it wasn’t the right time.

“Haven’t you had someone special to you?”

His gun began to shake. Junmyeon hit his sensitive spot.

“We wouldn’t want someone like him to be killed, I assume you have lost someone before, right?”

“Shut up!! Don’t talk to me, you don’t know anything you’re just as ignorant as anyone else in this dying world.”

Jongdae clicked safety off, and that’s when Junmyeon pulled out his gun and shot Jongdae’s. He dropped the gun and looked up only to be tackled to the ground by Yixing.

“Baekhyun, are you alright?”

Junmyeon knelt down to the blonde or pink head, whose name seemed to be Baekhyun while Jongdae tried to fight off Yixing. His movements were weak though so he was pinned down to the ground, he let out a cry before tears began to leak from his eyes.

“I want her back!! I want Sugar back! Why did they kill her?!”

Yixing blinked twice and turned his head to look at Junmyeon who looked just as confused as he did. He slowly let go off him and crawled off of him, only for Jongdae to sit up and hug his waist, crying into his chest. Yixing didn’t want to push him away and have him attempt to kill him, so he tried to soothe him by stroking his hair. Baekhyun and Junmyeon stared at them, while Yixing just didn’t know what to do besides try to settle him down. He assumed he was unstable due to whoever Sugar was, maybe a petname for a girl?

“Hey, calm down.”

“You don’t know anything..”

Jongdae muttered, taking out his knife and holding it up Yixing’s neck, only to falter and a quivering frown covering his face. He let his forehead hit his chest.

“I want Sugar.”

“Who is she?”

“My dog..”

“What happened to her?”

“She wouldn’t let me touch her.. she was bitten by one of those things, and she died. I let her rest on my pillow though, she always loved my bed, she would rest at my feet but liked my pillow too.”

“I’m sorry, it must have been horrible. I understand if it’s hard, there is a special bond between human and dog, so it also could have been difficult for her to let you watch her lose the life in her. She probably didn’t want you to be hurt, to cry over her.”

Jongdae sniffled, wiping his tears with his sleeves.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

The sun burned into his back, the heat attacking him the most for wearing black. It felt like the whole world was against him. Yixing helped him stand up.

“We can treat you right, since you don’t have anyone else, you can stay here with us.”

Junmyeon and Baekhyun weren’t not involved or agreed to this, they both thought Yixing was too nice for his own good. Jongdae only nodded.

“Okay, well we want to clean up the apartment building, we’ve got the roof, floors nine and eight covered. So we just have to check for the rest, we could also board up the windows so none of the Lurkers try to climb through them.”

“Okay.”

Jongdae agreed, continuing to wipe his eyes then grabbing his rifle, sticking his arm through the strap and walking inside. Junmyeon then turned to Yixing.

“He literally just tried to kill Baekhyun but you invite him in like it’s a club?”

“Look, he lost his dog today.”

“Tough luck. Assassin knows how it feels to have someone taken away.”

“Junmyeon, he has never felt love in his life and the only source of happiness was his dog, Sugar. It doesn’t matter what happened in the past because now, everyone is probably dead and there is no laws here. And he is an assassin, he is skilled, he could help us as a group!”

It took Junmyeon a moment, Baekhyun was already in the moment he mentioned his dog and was close to tears already. Junmyeon looked at him then back at Yixing, before sighing.

“Fine.”

Once the three men entered, the found Jongdae on the seventh floor, fighting not a Lurker, but a man with a knife and a hood creating a shadow over his eyes.

“What is going on?!”

Yixing yelled at them as if they were children, and they both stopped to look at him. Jongdae tried to explain.

“He appeared out of nowhere and tried to stab me!”

“It’s not my fault you startled me, I got scared and you tried to stab me too!”

The man argued back, then pulled his hood down to reveal his brown wavy hair and dark brown eyes in the shape of a glare. He seemed young considering he was arguing back and owned a baby face.

“Let’s chill for a second.”


	5. Sehun

_July 16th, 2018_

Hello hello, my name is Oh Sehun. I’m currently 24 years old, I used to be the youngest out of all my friends. We visited a store for canned food, but we found journals there too. Yixing decided we should all start our own journal, he said it’d be a way to keep us entertained or busy when we remain indoors. It’s nice, but I know the main reason is he doesn’t want us to begin to lose our sanity by staring at the wall every day all the time or cleaning our weapons. I’m glad to know he cares about our mental health instead of being focused on if we are scratched or bitten like other possible leaders, so it was right for him to become like a leader to us. I don’t always agree on what he says, sometimes I think he is too kind for his own good but couldn’t help it, you know? I’m worried. I have a feeling as if one day, we’re driven into a corner, he will decide he wants to be too kind once more for the final time. I don’t want that day to ever come, if it does I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from taking the blame and feeling guilty. I always try to talk to him as much as I can, the same with the rest of them, we never know what could happen tomorrow. Or today, or the day after tomorrow, and so on. So, I want to make the best out of the time we are able to spend with together as almost like, a family. An unstable, but happy family.

My name is Oh Sehun, and ignorance is a gun trigger.

 

The brunette applied his wet brush against the watercolor pan set, tainting the brown bristles of it a blue then swishing it around in a jar of water. He outlined the houses, adding falling leaves to the portrait along with trees. The theme was multiple houses in the winter, everything looks blue, white, and gold. The gold coming from the inside of the houses of warmth, to show families are warming up near the fire. Hot coco in their cold hands, the tips of their fingers and palms a shade of pink from the cold, along with the end of their noses. Their skin as pale as the snow. The fire a bright mixture of warm red, orange, and yellow. As he stared at the woman near the fire, a thick blanket covering her back and a little boy next to her warming his hands by the fire. His eyes were drawn to the dark figure in the corner, a shade of gray representing his eyes and light black as his body figure, he doubt anyone would be able to notice unless they looked very closely. Sehun’s focus was on the shadowy figure who seemed mischievous.

_“Sit down, baby.”_

_A mother called for her son, who walked over to her with his tiny feet hitting the floor with each step until he carefully sat down next to her._

_“It’s very cold, so you should warm your hands by the fire, yeah?”_

_The young boy nodded, lifting his arms and holding his hands out towards the fire, warmth invading his finger tips. She gently placed the hot coco down, sliding off the blanket and standing up while her son, Sehun, remained busy. Sehun noticed his mother stand, and tried to be subtle when he turned his head only slightly to see where she had gone. There he saw his father in the dark corner of the room, who was previously watching them until his mother walked to him._

_“You have to support this family too. It shouldn’t be one-sided, I’m the one making the money and helping our son get an education but you’re never here. A son needs his father just as much as he needs me. I never receive any money from you, or you never do anything with him, I have to do everything by myself. Why do I have to be the one taking care of a child I never wanted?”_

_Sehun looked forward and stared at the fire. He was young, but he could understand his mother’s words. Had he angered her? He thought he was doing well, helping her and letting her have some time of the day to herself. She always complimented him, he never cried when he made a mistake, never complained, he didn’t understand. Did Momma simply not want him? Sehun’s thoughts wandered, he didn’t notice he was too close to the fire until he heard his mother scream. He looked up immediately._

_“Mom–”_

_“Sehun your arm!!”_

_He looked back down, he saw his long sleeved shirt had caught while he was distracted. She grabbed a towel and began to hit his arm, trying to get rid of the fire._

_“Sehun!!”_

Sehun pulled down his sleeve, to where he stared at the long scar on his wrist. She was so angry at him that day, he was crying at the hospital not because it hurt, but because of the thought of how his mother would think. Once they arrived home, she threw a burnt piece of wood at his face which earned a cut on his cheek. He had to aid it himself in the bathroom. He finally took a look at the painting as a whole.

“Tch.”

He grabbed it off canvas and walked towards the window, pulling it open and throwing yet another mistake out into the streets. He shut the window and turned around to attempt to find more motivation by staring at the wall but heard a thump. He spun his body back around and saw a bloody hand print on his window, them banging on his door. He hesitantly placed his hand on the doorknob, and the moment he opened the door it was pushed open harshly and a body entered. Sehun shut the door and stared at the panting woman with her hand clutching her shoulder.

“Hey, are you okay? What happened?”

“Please help me, it hurts.”

Sehun knew he kept a first aid kit in one of his drawers, so he took the box out and opened it. He instructed for her to take off her shirt and sit on the chair. Just as he was wiping the blood with a cotton ball, he noticed the wound was oddly shaped, it looked like a bite. Not like any animal, but human teeth. He glanced at her, she was sweating intensely and desperate for air, blue and purple veins appearing out of her neck. He added alcohol to a fresh cotton ball, before brushing it across the wound. She hissed and moved back, causing the chair to hit the desk and the axe near fall to the ground.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I should’ve warned you first.”

Sehun stood up after dropping the cotton ball onto the desk, the axe was there for cutting wood, at the time he wasn’t able to afford a desk so he bought an axe to collect wood then create one for himself. He wasn’t as skilled, so it came out pretty crappy, he should remake it. He turned around with the axe but the woman was suddenly in his face with her teeth caught in the handle of the axe. He fell to the ground, groaning from his head hitting the ground. The veins spread from her neck to the side of her face towards her eyes and across her cheek, her eyes a cloudy white. Sehun yelled and hit the side of her face with the end of the handle, the knob. He gasped and stood up shakily, backing up.

“I.. I’m sorry, are you okay?”

She remained on the floor for a few seconds, breathing loudly before screaming and crawling towards him. When she grabbed his ankle, he panicked and closed his eyes, launching the axe down into her skull. He breathed heavily, his eyes opening slowly then dropped the axe, her face hitting the floor. Did he just kill someone? He looked around and walked towards the two windows, checking if anyone had saw what he had just done. Sehun couldn’t help but start crying. Someone is going to come look for her, a family member or boyfriend and they will find her dead, they will frame him for murder and he will be sent to jail with no mercy. If he called now, maybe they would realize he is actually speaking the truth when he would say it was out of self-defense and he thought he was going to be injured. He reached for his phone and dialed 911, walking back and forth with a finger in his mouth, waiting patiently but there was no answer. He tried again. No answer. Should he go to the police station? Sehun felt afraid, and brought a knife with him just in case he was attacked again.

Sehun pulled over a hoodie before he left his house, stuffing the knife in his pocket. The sidewalk was empty, cars were parked on the side of the road like normal. The axe stuffed between the outside of his shirt and inside of his hoodie was uncomfortable, he decided to bring it for evidence but it would be strange if he was walking with an _axe_ in his hand as if it was a regular thing to do. Sehun had his stomach in a twist, there was a feeling somewhere within him that something was wrong. Or was it the spots or puddles of blood beginning to appear in his view. It was until he saw bodies on the ground, with some having a person or two towering over them. He decided he will just report it later. Out of fear, he ran back towards his home until someone came out from an alleyway, owning a similar appearance to the woman he killed. The man growled, then tried to grab onto him but only managed to grab his sleeve instead of his actual arm. Sehun screamed, catching the attention of many others around him. He noticed and quickly pulled his arm away, a patch of his sleeve ripped off thanks to the man. He then ran across the street, all at once he he heard a gunshot not so far from him. A cry left him, he ran and ran between alleyways until he found himself out of breath. He was in the middle of a street then his eyes caught a convenience store, where a car was crashed into it. There was a huge chance it will be a mistake to go in there, but he was thirsty and wouldn’t be able to go on any longer. 

With this, he grabbed the axe by the knob and pulled out from his hoodie. He held onto it tightly as he walked in slowly, but flinched when he stepped on glass causing a shard to break. He heard movement and quickly walked into one of the aisles, hiding at the end and peeked his head out to where he just was. The sound of feet dragging continued, then a slumped body came into view and was staring down at the broken glass. His exit was now cut off. Sehun looked around until he found the drinks, pulling open the door and grabbing a glass coke, throwing it to the left of the thing which quickly caught its attention as it shattered. With the same speed, it walked over to investigate. Sehun stuffed a cold water bottle into his hoodie pocket, then made quick movements to leave the store. But he saw more of them, and ran inside a apartment building before they could see him. He looked around, there were none in the lobby, he should check the rest of the building, perhaps stay here a while until the streets clear or he finds a map.

Sehun walked up the stairs, shoving the axe carefully back into his hoodie. After making it to the seventh floor, he found one very close to where he was.the He pulled his hood over his head. He should sneak up on it. He slowly crept behind it with a knife, but its ears caught the sound of his feet meeting the floor and turned around faster than the rest of them. 

“Shit.”

Surprisingly, it caught Sehun’s wrist and cursed, that’s when he realized it wasn’t one of the things that would kill him. He was already planning to apologize but then the man took out of knife and tried to stab _him._ His body moved to the right, missing the attack but just barely. Sehun took back his hand and then kicked the man’s knee, earning a groan and he fell onto the same knee. That’s when he saw an opportunity, but he rolled and his knife collided with the floor. They fought until the two men heard a yell and their hands were in the air, knives in both.

“What is going on?!”

The scolding man came with two men behind him, it seemed the man Sehun was fighting was quick to defend himself.

“He appeared out of nowhere and tried to stab me!”

“It’s not my fault you startled me, I got scared and you tried to stab me too!”

Sehun roughly threw down his hood to reveal his face, throwing a glare at him.

“Let’s chill for a second.”

A man with pink or blonde hair spoke up, his hands gesturing to calm down by lowering and bringing them up.

“We are getting off on the wrong foot.”

“True true.”

The man dropped his knife to the ground.

“I’m Jongdae. That one is Baekhyun, he’s Yixing, and that is Junmyeon.”

“I’m Sehun– woah you’re that one Chinese actor! I love your movies!”

Yixing smiled back at Sehun, while Junmyeon was confused by the whole situation. They had gone from trying to kill each other, to Sehun being a fan of Yixing.

“Thank you for your support.”

“That’s cool and all, but where did you come from?”

“Oh! Well, I live far off, a woman came in injured and when I tried to treat her, she tried to kill me! I was scared, and accidentally killed her.”

Sehun took out the axe, Jongdae backing up with a ‘wow’ and looking at the bloodied head of it. He saw the bite mark on the handle, and pointed at it.

“I don’t think that was no regular woman kid.”

“Yeah, she tried to bite me. And her injury was a bite mark too, I found it strange.”

“Is this guy an idiot? Who is gonna tell him?”

“Don’t be rude Junmyeon. He seems young.”

Yixing sighed, shaking his head but Junmyeon was just impatient.

“Clearly, you haven’t seen the news, but a virus has started where people have began to eat each other alive. I predict the city was taken over around more or less two hours ago. I see that you didn’t give off much attention, so you didn’t notice until that woman entered your home. We call them Lurkers.”

“Cool.”

Sehun swung the axe onto his shoulder, earning a flinch from Jongdae who then pointed at him.

“Watch where you throw that thing.”

“Right.”

That was when they heard a man yelling from outside the building, the five men other than Jongdae who went to his sniper were quick to run down the stairs until they made it to the bottom and entrance of the apartment. There was a man in a proper attire, almost like a school teacher who was running at them with a child in his arms with a few Lurkers following them.

“Another idiot.”

Junmyeon sighed and aimed his gun, along with Yixing and Baekhyun.

“Ready.. now.”

_Bang._


	6. Jongin

_July 16th, 2018_

Hello! My name is Kim Jongin, I am 24 years old, and I was previously a preschool teacher. I have always loved children, so when someone asked me what I wanted my job to be when I am older, I always said a teacher for children. I did two years of highschool before I tested out and attended college. Stayed until I got my degree and was able to work for the job I’ve been striving for since I was at a young age. So, when I finally managed to win a job at a school a few miles from my home, I was nervous on the first day. They were quiet at first, they must have been intimidated by my height. Soon, they began to warm up to me and call me Oppa instead of Mr. Kim or by my first name. During break, I was in the restroom cleaning the markers and paint and glitter off my face. The other few teachers said they loved me, I believed them because it seemed to be true. I had never been more happy. I was living the life I always wanted. I had been working there for two years, then it was October 23rd. It was every other day, time to play with the kids and I was excited as always. Many people questioned how I could be so patient, I occasionally asked that too but never pondered too hard on it. It was a gift. Everything was moving smoothly, the same Monday like last week and the week before. At least, that’s what I thought, that’s what I hoped for. I never knew, in a million years, everything would be ripped away just as quickly as I received it.

My name is Kim Jongin, and defeat is a gun trigger.

 

Jongin was a man who was never late or never wanted to, so when he was stuck in traffic it bummed him out a bit. Soon the streets began to clear, and he had passed by the accident, there were no police and only the people involved. He couldn’t make out what was happening, but he saw in a glimpse that they crashed into a convenience store. Jongin didn’t put much thought into it, and drove towards the preschool before he could become any more late.

He managed to arrive only a few minutes late by passing the speed limit only slightly, there were no cops around so if no one saw it, nothing happened. As he walked in, he wondered if they called a substitute and looked through the glass window once he made it to his classroom. They had called one. Jongin knocked before opening the door, he was confused as to why they weren’t talking or playing around like usual when he was there. The children were only walking slowly, along with the substitute who seemed like a middle-aged man. It was until he created a sound, the children and the sub stopped moving, and turned their heads to look at him.

“Is.. something going on?”

Jongin noticed the gash in a young girls head, a boy with a piece of his arm holding onto its last string of flesh, the sub was covered in bites, torn through his clothes. He heard screaming.

_“Jonginnie!! Help!”_

A girl. He could hear it coming from the closet on the other side of the classroom, he didn’t know what was going on. Were they pulling a prank?

“Hey, you can stop now. I’m a scaredy-cat, they know that..”

Jongin reached out to the substitute, who swung his arm at him and ripped through his sleeve but managed to not scratch his skin. He realized the makeup looked too real, and the blood and gore were also too realistic. He shut the door. If they weren’t joking, and this was really happening, he needed to retrieve the child stuck in the closet. They probably had weapons in the teachers lounge. As he ran down the hall, he could hear his students hitting the door until he arrived at his destination, he couldn’t see anyone through the window but he was sure they were in there. Jongin unlocked the door with his key, and pushed open the door with a small creak. He searched under desks and each teachers individual office, then he walked into the principals room and looked beneath the desk, he found a metal bat. Of course, he wasn’t expecting useful like a gun or anything. This is a preschool. He found matches, and took the fire extinguisher, which could be used. When he walked back to his classroom, they were the same as before, moving slowly and groaning every time they bumped into each other. The matches were in his pocket, less than half of the bat shoved into his pants while he prepared the fire extinguisher. He took a deep breath. He was going to try to not hurt his kids. They’re his kids. His students. The ones who looked up at him and smiled every morning he entered the classroom. He knew they didn’t know what they were doing. 

He opened the door. Immediately he pulled the pin and aimed the hose nozzle to block their way, most of them were covered before he lunged it at the substitute who fell back. Jongin ran towards the closet, opening the door to see one of his students crouching on the ground with her hand clutching an injury on her arm. He quickly threw her over his shoulder, holding her with his left hand and the bat with his right. The fuzz began to sizzle down, the students began to see him just as he was near the door, he still had one more thing to do. Jongin knocked one in the head, his body flying and knocking a few other students. It hurt doing injuring them. He opened the door and shoved the bat back in his pants, grabbing the matches and sliding one into the wooden door, then lighting one of the little ones who ran at him by her shirt. He closed the door, watching as she ran around and other items and students catching flame.

Jongin looked at the girl he held, she was unconscious, he needed to find safety somewhere other than here.

 

There were better situations to be in. Like having another normal day. And there were also worse situations, instead of being followed by adults who looked like his students while holding a child, running towards any place to hide out. Yelling for help probably wasn’t the best thing to do. It seemed to be effective, he saw a few men running out of an apartment building with guns. It was until he saw them aim at him, he stopped running.

_Bang._

Jongin opened his eyes and looked at the roof of the building, where he saw a man reloading his sniper rifle and aiming back at other one. The three men at the bottom shot two, before two of them, one with blonde hair in the sunlight and the other with black hair began to run at him. The blonde had no weapon, but the black haired held a knife, but the moment the blonde ran past him he stole the bat from his pants and held it behind him, jumping up and knocking another one of them to the ground. The black haired stabbed the last one in the neck, kicking it down to the ground and continuing to throw the knife in and out in the forehead. The blonde continued to smash the metal bat into its head before it was nothing but looking like a squished grape. They panted, walking towards Jongin.

“Are you okay?”

“Injured?”

“I’m Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun held his hand out, until he saw the child hanging on him with a bite mark on her shoulder. He turned his head to the black haired and opened his mouth to yell, but he was quick and grabbed the child by its back. The girl had woke up, about to bite into Jongin’s shoulder then began to squirm in his grasp.

“She..”

“Yixing, we have to put her down.”

“Put her down?!”

“She’s a Lurker!!”

Baekhyun yelled at Jongin who tried to defend her, when she was nothing by now but a monster in a child's body. Yixing was struggling keeping her steady, until he dropped her and she ran at Baekhyun.

“Shit–”

He held his bat, but it was too slow and she was bound to make it to him first. Then there was a gunshot, and the three men looked up to the roof where their friend gave a thumbs up. Baekhyun fell to the ground when the child collapsed onto his legs, dead. Jongin breathed out shakily, he knelt down and took the little girl into his arms. One of her curls wrapped around his finger, then slowly slipping off.

“She was going to bite you.”

A man with a collared shirt walked towards him, a gun in his hand.

“If we hadn’t killed her, she would have killed you.”

He then put the gun to his neck.

“And we would be forced to kill you too, before you were just like her, nothing besides a _Lurker._ ”

Jongin grabbed the gun and threw it back at the man, who rolled his eyes at him from his childish acts.

“Junmyeon, let us not threaten him.”

Junmyeon muttered under his breath, probably defending himself. Soon, the man from the building came running out of breath and he looked down with his hands on his knees. He then looked back up with a smile, that was when Jongin recognized him.

“Aren’t you Kim Jongdae?”

“Why? Did we have a night out or..”

Jongdae gestured with his hands and his eyes narrowed that was a bit funny looking, but Jongin shook his head.

“You’re an assassin.”

“Damn, if everyone knows me, why didn’t they catch me? Now there is no one to, which pulls the fun out of it, and killing will become the norm. So get used to it, clearly you’re sensitive since you’re crying over a child, if you don’t toughen up, you’ll be dead.”

Jongdae lost his brightness when he told Jongin he would be long dead, which gave him an uneasy feeling. It also went around Jongdae was never stable mentally, and killed his parents. Apparently, insane and bipolar, a hint of schizophrenia. It was never confirmed by his therapist, who remained humble and loyal to the end but the mental institution proved his lack of sanity. It’ll seem there would be a lot more people like Jongdae now that the world is like this.

“We should move bases, that apartment isn’t safe. Too complex and far off, we can’t afford to board up all the windows and keep the front or back entrance safe. If Lurkers get in, the last option we will have is suicide.”

Sehun let his axe relax on his shoulder, and his other hand stuffed in his pocket.

“When did you become part of the group?”

“It came naturally, and without any knowledge of it nor consent.”

Baekhyun shrugged, he had a handy weapon and it’s better to have a friend then an enemy.

“He is right though, that apartment isn’t our best solution. And since we will be moving, we can find more people to gather into our group. It’s better to have a large amount of people, we will all have each others backs.”

“Unless the numbers are odd instead of even.”

Jongdae pursed his lips at Yixing, who used his hand to symbol the current group.

“Six of us, it’s even.”

“Oh, really?”

“We should use a car, we can’t wander the streets, we need to find a truck..”

Junmyeon looked around, the pointing at a green pickup truck on the side of the road.

“Bingo.”

After going back into the hotel and collecting supplies then putting them in each individual bag labeled with sharpie, they broke into people’s rooms for those who were wearing suits or any item of clothing uncomfortable or unfit for the journey. Junmyeon and Jongin changed their clothes, the others wiping stains off their hands with jugs of water they found in a storage room. Finally, Junmyeon and Yixing sat in the front seat, Baekhyun and Jongin in the back, and Sehun with Jongdae in the rear. Junmyeon explained to them if they were to sit there: one, they could possibly die and we will not come back to their corpses. And two, don’t shoot or we will attract Lurkers. The two were too busy arguing, they didn’t even think of the second rule.

“They must have a love-hate relationship type of thing.”

Baekhyun said looking back at the two, before sitting straight. Junmyeon shrugged.

“Or a hate relationship. Kind of thing.”

“Junmyeon.”

Yixing sighed and he looked offended.

“What did I do?”

It had been a while of driving, Sehun and Jongdae’s arguments ceased and they calmly spoke to each other out of boredom. Baekhyun smiled to himself. It was a love-hate relationship kind of thing, Junmyeon had been wrong. Jongin and Yixing continued to stare out their own window, until Yixing sat up suddenly.

“Look.”

It was a prison. And there was a male with fiery red hair running out of the front doors, Lurkers following him but he looked as free as he could be.


	7. Chanyeol

_July 16th, 2018_

Hello, hi, my name is Park Chanyeol. I’m currently 25 years old, I was convicted of murder at the age of twenty for supposedly killing my sister and my father. Of course I did it, I just couldn’t help but smile and laugh during the interrogation and court because it was so stupid. How could they ignore and disrespect my mother? Hell, she raised me and my sister yet my sister had the nerve to treat her as if she was a piece of gum under a school desk. There was nothing more annoying, actually there is someone, my father. Shit of a father, and a husband really. He was abusive towards both my mother and sister, not to me, apparently he saw my ‘masculinity’ and ‘dominance’ it was all bullshit. He was simply a misogynist. I don’t deal with those kinds of people very well. But that day, I was already having a bad day, so things went from here to there. They never considered the abuse she went through, they don’t care, if my father continued my mother would be the one dead in the end. It was him or her. I had to choose. I stayed there for five years, it would have been way more considering what I was in for and my bad behavior, constantly getting into fights and the nurse office became my second home other than my cell. But I broke out, no I didn’t think of an scheme where I slip past every guard and every spotlight, it was when everyone was the walking dead and I had to run for my life.

My name is Park Chanyeol, and greed is a gun trigger.

 

“Here again, Mr. Park?”

“Like I said Granny, call me Chanyeol.”

The old woman who was like a Grandmother to him, wiped the leaking blood off his cheek and rubbed the ends of the band-aid over the cut. He held onto her hand, feeling it close to his cheek, his eyes closed and a small smile on his lips. She smacked her lips but smiled, rolling her eyes at the adorable boy.

“Jesus, why did you ever get in here?”

“You know why.”

Chanyeol let go of her hand, his own landing in his lap with his gaze downwards, until he felt her hand travel through his hair. It caused him to smile and lean into her touch. Despite the hatred holding in the prison, the cold nights and hot mornings, the arguments he held with everyone, it all made up to him if he got to be with the sweet old lady in the nursing room. He couldn’t help but be spoiled and filled with affection by her, even when she is simply speaking to him, he always smiles and listens carefully to her words.

“You should stop getting into fights Chanyeol, you’re always covered in bruises and cuts.”

“I tell them not the face.”

“I know, but you should also control your strength, we were forced to send one to the hospital because of you! Naughty boy.”

Chanyeol threw his head back laughing, kicking his legs like a child over the bed.

“He deserved it, racist and sexist, I’m pretty sure he did disgusting things to people. I’m not sure why they put him in here, he deserves to die.”

“Chanyeol, those are terrible quirks of a human, but you know you can’t kill every one of them off the face of the Earth. The least they could do is put them here for a couple years or for life.”

He stared down at his nails, lifting his legs and crossing them over the other.

“I say that’s too good for him. This place provides food, medicine, these people don’t have to pay for taxes and they are in perfect health. This system is bullshit.”

“I have to say I agree.”

Chanyeol looked up, and smiled.

“This is why you’re my favorite Granny.”

“Ah, whatever, come on they’re waiting for you.”

Chanyeol nodded, sliding off the bed and placing a kiss in her hair. The security grabbed him and pulled him away from her, earning a growl out of him and he threw his head back to knock one of them in a nose. She sighed. Outside of the nursing room, when he isn’t with her, he is a man filled with anger and is capable of being a killing machine. She hated this side of him. Chanyeol was roughly pulled back towards the two security men, now one of them with a nosebleed, then forced out and back to his cell. He was shoved in there, once they immediately shut the door he was already there, gripping the bars as he stared at the man with a bloody nose.

“Hey, you got something there.”

He spit at him. The security wanted nothing more but to punch his sorry face, but left to calm himself down. Chanyeol’s hands slid and he backed up, his body swing left and to the right slightly until he felt the bed at his legs and he sat down. He turned his head to look at the markings on the wall from previous inmates. Usually in every sale, two people were in there but Chanyeol had a special case where he wasn’t allowed to have a partner. The last one he had was a person too easy to handle, they should have seen it coming.

_“Guess what? You’ve got a roommate.”_

_Chanyeol was shoved into the cell, almost falling over but turned around and held onto the cell before it could close. They couldn’t pull it, despite how he looks with the baggy clothes on, he was strong and wouldn’t let go. Then one of the guards reached in and pushed the stick into his chest, knocking him to the ground, forcing him to let go. They quickly locked it. Chanyeol stood up, wiping his clothes and gripped onto the bars._

_“They deserved to die. Your way of things is the shittiest I’ve ever seen, she would have died if I hadn’t done something you stupid fucks!!”_

_“Shut up, skinny. They don’t care about what you did, stop yelling like a mad man.”_

_Chanyeol ignored him, climbing onto the top bunk and laid down with his head landing in the rough pillow._

_“Mind your business. I’m not a mad man.”_

_He said something else, but he didn’t listen._

_“You know, we’re all rats here, rats on a ship.”_

_This caught his attention, so Chanyeol opened his ears to this one._

_“In the end, when the ship sinks, we’re all scurrying to survive and it comes push and shove. There is a very low chance for all the rats to survive. That’s what I think of this place.”_

_“I see, I think of it as a race, someone wins. Whether it’s you or me, no one cares who wins.”_

_“Why do you think that?”_

_“Goodnight.”_

_That night, Chanyeol stayed up. He slowly climbed down the bunk with his pillow, sitting down on the ground in front of the bed. He didn’t notice how buff this guy was, but it didn’t matter. Chanyeol crawled forward, then stood up and bent over, before shoving the pillow over the mans face. It took a moment, but he began to squirm and grab at his sleeve. Chanyeol smiled at this._

_“It doesn’t matter who wins in a rat race, in the end, the winner is still a rat.”_

Chanyeol was forced to work more after killing his roommate. He thanked them for it, due to that he got stronger. But he was also given a bed reputation, people mocking him for killing someone on the first day and asking if he would kill them too. He almost did, nearly choked them to death if he wasn’t knocked unconscious by security. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t have much patience, nor the cause of his anger issues. Then the day happened when Chanyeol realized the world was going to end. October 23rd. The outside was loud, and the inside of their prison was quiet.

“We are going under lockdown.”

Chanyeol could hear through the walls of the insides of the building moving, locks were clicking and it was then he heard a scream. He didn’t pay much attention. He only stared up at the ceiling until he fell asleep. When he woke up, there was a guard in front of his cell, banging his fists against the bars. Chanyeol sighed, standing up from the bed and rubbing his eyes as he walked towards him.

“Woah.”

He flinched back and laughed at the guards attempt at grabbing him, then realized he looked uglier than usual. Chanyeol tried to take a closer look from a distance, then tried to take in the outer surroundings of the cell. The floors were covered in blood, he saw the torn open bodies of guards and criminals scattered on the bottom floor. Chanyeol noticed the gun in his pocket, and crouched where he quickly grabbed it then stood back. How did the others get out? Did they unlock their cells? If so.. Chanyeol could leave. He aimed the gun, then he had a thought. If there were others who wanted to kill him, shooting a gun wasn’t a good option. He had an idea, he grabbed the pillow from his bunk and slid open the cell, jumping back. The guard inched towards him, until he sped up and that’s when Chanyeol jumped onto him, pushing him to the ground and stuffed the pillow in his face. He pushed the gun to where his brain would be, and pulled the trigger. The guard stopped moving, thankfully it wasn’t loud. He then escaped, running down the stairs and halted. The nurse. Chanyeol ran the opposite direction to her room, and knocked hastily. She peeked through the window, realized it was him and let him inside.

“Of course, you’re safe. You’re Chanyeol.”

“Glad to see you’re alive too.”

Chanyeol scratched his head with the muzzle of the gun. He turned off the lights so the room wouldn’t catch their attention.

“We need to run.”

“Chanyeol, we don’t know if it’s safe.”

“I do, none are out there, they must be wandering upstairs or in their cells. So, unless we make noise, we can get out of here, together, and find somewhere safe.”

She sighed, but eventually succumbed because there was no other option. He counted down, before he swung open the door and they both ran until they made it to the doors where they could escape. Chanyeol turned to her, taking her hands in his and holding them close to his face again like he did earlier.

“Thank you for treating me so kindly, but..”

“But?”

“You will only be a liability to my escape.”

She looked at him confused, until he took out the gun and shot her right leg. She screamed loudly, falling to the ground and soon more of the things he saw earlier began to pour out. Chanyeol turned around, he had stole her ID card and scanned it over the electrical panel, the door unlocking and he opened it. She continued to cry out his name, but he only walked through the door and watched the murderers bite into her before shutting the door. Chanyeol ran through the seemingly endless halls, until he found the exit door and escaped through it. There were a few outside, so when they saw a chance of food they chased after him, but he was faster than them. On the other side of the gates surrounding the prison, Chanyeol saw a car with multiple people inside including two people hanging out in the rear end.

While he was running across the field, the men noticed him.

“He’s going to die.”

“Probably.”

“Shouldn’t we help?”

“It’s too risky– holy shit.”

Chanyeol made it to gate and jumped onto it like a cat, taking a moment to adjust before he began to climb, he did so until he made it to the top. The men in the car were freaking out, thinking he was so cool but also he might get injured. The man in the drivers seat drove to where he was, waiting beneath while Chanyeol carefully climbed down. It was when he felt one of the things grab his ankle through the tiny holes, he let go and fell into the arms of the two men in the rear of the car. It was a series of groaning between the three men until someone inside yelled.

“Are you guys alright?!”

Chanyeol apologized and quickly crawled off them, they slowly got up but one with black hair made the ‘okay’ sign while the brown haired only nodded.

“We’re good!”

The car started up again, and they continued on the road.

“So, what’s your name?”

“I’m Park Chanyeol, and you both?”

“I’m Oh Sehun, and that is Kim Jongdae.”

“Woah! Kim Jongdae, you’re the one who killed my great grandpa! And you were that artist whose fame was growing, I love the fireflies painting you did, gorgeous.”

Jongdae noticed this Chanyeol guy didn’t seem upset about his great grandfather, and nodded. Sehun couldn’t help but smile, someone had actually known of his work and genuinely liked it. He mumbled a small thank you.

“Yep, and why were you here?”

“Damn, well, I killed my father and sister. I had stayed for only a good five years, I’m twenty-five right now, I’m pretty sure years were added due to killing my cellmate.”

Jongdae blew raspberries, pointing at him laughing but Chanyeol only shrugged with a grin.

“It doesn’t matter now though, considering those things have taken over, and I assume out here too.”

“Yes, this morning actually, we call them Lurkers.”

“Nice, I like that.”

Chanyeol nodded, leaning back while unbuttoning a few buttons on his orange uniform shirt. The two only awe’d, thinking he was so cool, only to treat him like the rest of them very soon. The driving continued for what seemed like an two hours, it was late afternoon and they were beginning become afraid. If they don’t find somewhere to hide for at least the night, they were destined to die.

“Where are we even going?”

“Uh, not sure yet, actually. We just need somewhere to stay, even if it’s for tonight considering the sun will be setting soon.”

“I think I know a place, I’ve been around town here and there.”

 

They arrived at a warehouse. They didn’t care where they were by now, but when Baekhyun tried to open the door and it wouldn’t open, they weren’t impressed.

“You guys really think I would let someone snatch this hideout? Wait here.”

“Uh, be quick thanks!!”

They were all up to their necks and couldn’t help but anxiously wait for the sun to go down and disappear, leaving only darkness. Chanyeol then slid the door to the right from the inside, his shoes pushing against the dirt before letting go.

“Come on in.”

Junmyeon drove in the truck so if there were any greedy survivors out there, they wouldn’t have a chance of stealing it. Then he hopped off once he shut it off. Chanyeol closed the door, locking it then turned around, taking off his shirt.

“Woah, cowboy.”

Jongdae snickered, but Junmyeon nudged him, Chanyeol looked at the both of them with a confused expression.

“Those five years payed off.”

Jongdae whispered to Sehun with his eyes drawn to the six pack adoring the males body, who got angry and punched his shoulder. Chanyeol walked up the wooden stairs, where he opened one of the crates in the corner and took out a fresh shirt. He dropped his previous clothes onto the ground, replacing them with all black clothing, then pulled out a crossbow.

“Is that your signature weapon?”

“No, I prefer guns, but I thought someone would want this. My father always had it, so I decided to take it.”

“Well, we’ve got guns to spare.”

Chanyeol walked down the steps with the crossbow in hand, before placing it in the car then looking at Junmyeon with a hopeful smile.

“Do you have a machine gun?”


	8. Kyungsoo

_July 16th, 2018_

Hello. My name is Do Kyungsoo, I am 25 years old, my birthday was on the twelfth of January. My previous job was as a lawyer, a prosecutor, I was actually Chanyeol’s when his court date came, it was an easy shot. In the end, he confessed and somehow found it funny he was being arrested. It was irritating in a way. Due to my curiosity, I checked his background, there was nothing out of the usual until I saw he had a problem with handling his anger. It’s strange considering he was laughing and keeping calm, stifling a few chuckles throughout the whole progress of his case. I didn’t look anymore, it was simply another person, or to me, an item kept for entertaining purposes. I was never happy with my life, it was incredibly boring, it was nothing but an endless cycle only for it to end with one thing. Death. While life only revolved around money, everything included money, along with hate and people desperately wanting rights like equality and a better world when all they do is complain on the internet instead of having an actual voice. Even so, if something like peace were to happen, it wouldn’t last. It could come back, but history could only repeat itself until there is nothing left to repeat other than another world with a different society. Honestly, I don’t know what I’m saying, I’m speaking about the negatives but perhaps I should also discuss the positives. For example, life isn’t so boring anymore, I mean every day is a risk and there is always a chance of dying, but it’s so much better than what I have lived for the past twenty-five years. I have friends who I’m close with, who I could die with, who I am currently also surviving with. I’d rather live my life where I’d be with them and die tomorrow instead of living until I die of old age a boring, non-achieving life.

My name is Do Kyungsoo, and regret is a gun trigger.

 

“You said you were at Fundoori Bar at the night of the murder, but there were cameras in every room in every corner, we have video evidence you were never there. So, please tell me where you actually were that night?”

“I.. I was..”

Kyungsoo stared at him patiently, waiting for another excuse when clearly he was the one with the blood on his hands. He could see the sweat trickle down his forehead, until he finally yelled.

“Okay! I did it, I did kill her! It doesn’t matter by now!!”

“Thank you for your acknowledgment, _murderer._ ”

The man blinked at him, before he stood up from his seat abruptly which startled everyone around him so the cops who were waiting at the sides ran over and grabbed him. The criminal cursed at him until all Kyungsoo could hear was the echoes of his words through the empty halls. One of his friends jogged over to him after the courtroom cleared out.

“You always look so cool during these Soo, did you actually find evidence?”

“No.”

“You lied?”

“I did go to the bar, but they don’t have cameras. I asked if they saw him, apparently they didn’t, but it didn’t matter. Because in the end, a good lie was all it took for him to break and reveal his crimes. Too gullible, if I was him, I would have asked for the evidence with no sweat.”

Kyungsoo took out a little bag from his satchel, where he pulled out a bagel and bit into it. His friend was bewildered and stopped walking, which confused him and he stopped too. They stared at each other for a moment.

“What is it?”

“Nothing, Kyungsoo.”

“Say, shouldn’t you be at your job, Minseok?”

Minseok sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“Yes, but they’re performing something I don’t approve of. I’m afraid of the outcome, they need my help with it but I’d rather not.”

“What are you doing in the lab?”

“.. That’s confidential, you know better.”

“Yes I do.”

At that moment, Minseok received a call, where he held up a finger towards Kyungsoo as he answered. He walked down the hallway further for privacy, but Soo could hear him arguing with whoever was on the phone until he got quiet.

“You did what? You were never given permission to do that, what have you done? God, what have you done, I need to get there now. You idiot, this was exactly what I was afraid of. Now, there is a chance people will die.”

Minseok turned around, walking to Kyungsoo.

“I need to go, there has been an accident.”

Then without any explanation, he ran and left him there alone. Kyungsoo truly wondered what happened in that lab, there was always something happening where he had to leave and fix it. Sometimes like now, he was there witnessing it, but he had never heard one where people could possibly die. Minseok had an expensive education though, and wouldn’t doubt if he was the smartest one in that lab, so Kyungsoo didn’t think nothing drastic would happen with him there.

It had been a few hours after that, he hasn’t been contacted yet by Minseok to see if the problem was resolved. When he tried to text him, the messages wouldn’t send. Had he blocked him? No, he wouldn’t. Then after sending the twelfth message, he received a respond but none to his previous questions.

_Run. Get somewhere safe. I failed._

Then Kyungsoo heard something faintly ticking, he stopped walking on the sidewalk before there he saw an explosion from a building across the street. The air knocked him over, he looked up to see a fire blooming from a hospital, the top had been blown up and it looked as if someone used a knife to slice it off while the rest remained in perfect condition. Then he began to see people leave the building, running out or jumping from the floor where they were. Were they trying to kill themselves? Kyungsoo watched as a woman fell, and collide to the ground, she remained there before parts of her body began to twitch then she slowly stood up. Blood began to drool from her head and drip down her chin, but she looked fine and didn’t seem to look like she was in any pain. That wasn’t possible, falling from that height would have immediately killed you once you hit the ground. Others began to leave through the main exit, grabbing and chasing people who seemed normal for the most part. The woman who fell six stories caught Kyungsoo in her eye, she stumbled with each walk due to her left foot being terribly deformed and it dragged against the road. As she got closer, she was almost at arms reach until a car sped past him and took her with it, it drove in zig-zag lines before crashing in a building.

Was this what Minseok meant?

If this was the source, he probably shouldn’t be here so he ran down the alleyway, grabbing a pipe that laid on the ground so if he had met one, he wouldn’t be defenseless. When he made it to the other side of street, he could see from both ends of the streets they were searching for more food. People who walked down the streets were grabbed at, or tackled to the ground, Kyungsoo knew his life was a bore, but he didn’t want to die yet. If he died, then he had just wasted his whole life. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, and swung the pipe into the persons face. It had been one of those things ready to kill him for the sake of their own hunger. Where was Minseok? Had he been part of this? Kyungsoo ran for an abandoned car, thankfully open and closed it before any more could attempt to consume him. He searched for the guns and he found them beneath the seat, shoving it in and starting up the car. He searched for anything that would be useful, then he found a gun beneath the passenger seat. It seemed the owner had been places. But Kyungsoo didn’t know where to go, sure he had a home but Minseok had said to get somewhere safe, and his house probably wasn’t the best option considering the virus is in the same city. He would have to find someplace to stay far from the source, at least for the night.

So, he drove. He drove for around two hours until he realized that the sun was setting soon and driving in the dark wouldn’t be safe. He was wondering how Minseok was doing, he didn’t know if he was alive or died in the explosion. Kyungsoo slowed down to look at his phone, pressing his contact and held the phone up to his ear once he started the call. The moment he looked at the road, he found himself driving right into a tree and his head collided with the wheel. His phone fell to the ground, ringing and ringing, until Minseok’s voice mail was all he could hear before he fell unconscious.

_Hello!! This is Kim Minseok, I am unable to come to the phone right now, sorry! I will try to reach you as soon as possible. Take care. Goodbye!_

 

“Is he dead?”

“Of course not I felt his pulse, trust me, I know when a person is dead.”

“Well, why isn’t he waking up then?”

“Baekhyun, he hit his head pretty hard back there, I wouldn’t expect him to be wide awake by now. And Jongdae, there is no need to brag about it.”

Kyungsoo’s eye lid twitched, which earned a reaction out of many.

“Woah!”

“He moved!”

“Is he waking up?”

“Shut up, stop being so loud or you’ll give him a headache.”

He opened his eyes, his vision blurry at first and he couldn’t make out the multiple faces surrounding him until one of them decided to get close, that’s when he freaked out and punched him.

“Ow! My nose!”

Kyungsoo sat up, but knocked the same guy in the forehead by mistake, which earned another cry.

“Ow!!!”

“Chanyeol! Shut up!”

Chanyeol whined quietly, holding onto his forehead and pinched his nose with the other. Kyungsoo rubbed his forehead, the impact affecting him too.

“Minseok?”

“Huh?”

The men looked at each other confused. Who?

“Who’s that?”

“Oh, he’s not here, who are you?”

They all introduced themselves one by one. Kyungsoo reached up, feeling something like bandages across his head but Baekhyun grabbed his hand before he could do so.

“It’ll hurt.”

“What happened?”

“Well, we were inside the warehouse, you know, minding our business,”

Sehun started but Jongin nudged him, whispering for him not to be rude then explained instead.

“We heard a crash from outside, when we came out, we saw you had crashed your car into the tree and passed out. We brought you inside while Baekhyun and Yixing fought off the Lurkers who came due to the amount of noise you created. Jongdae went on the roof and gave us when things were clear. You injured your head.”

“Who’s Minseok?”

Kyungsoo hesitated.

“He is a friend of mine, he worked at the hospital as a–”

Would it be okay to tell him his real work? No, if they knew he was one of those scientists who could possibly have started it and he was alive, they wouldn’t welcome him.

“As a doctor, he texted me to leave the city, I’m positive he was at work at the time and I don’t know if he is alright.”

“Bumin hospital?”

“Yes, he works there.”

“Why don’t we go find him?”

Jongdae gave a suggestion, his legs crossed with his sniper between the small circular place between his thighs, Kyungsoo was eager to do so and looked at the others, to see their expression. A few of them seemed unsure, like Junmyeon and Sehun. The two looked at each other then back at Kyungsoo.

“Wouldn’t that be extremely risky?”

“We would be saving someone’s life, Sehun.”

Jongdae placed his hand on his knee, but he only avoided his gaze and stared at the wall.

“We don’t know if he is alive.”

Junmyeon sighed. This time, Chanyeol butted in.

“We don’t know if he is dead. And if he is, we can always leave, there could also be some useful supplies. So, if anyone were to be injured, we have proper medical treatments.”

“Please..”

Kyungsoo begged. Jongdae took Sehun’s hand, which surprised everyone in the room due to thinking they thought they both hated each other. Baekhyun was simply jumping up and down on the floor, an excited smile on his face which caught Yixing’s attention and the ends of his lips curled into a smile too. He wasn’t sure why. Sehun finally sighed, trying to seem stubborn with his puffed out cheeks but the red blush at the ends of his ears revealed he was flustered.

“Fine, whatever. There could be supplies.”

“I don’t care by now, let’s go.”

Junmyeon rolled his eyes, but Jongin leaned over with an arm around his shoulder, a happy smile taking place on his face and a warm aura surrounding him.

“Field trip!”


	9. Minseok

_July 16th, 2018_

My name is Kim Minseok. I am 28 years old, the eldest out of everyone, my birthday was on March twenty-sixth where I celebrated with my friends. It was much like Junmyeon’s birthday, but less messy. I cannot handle a messy environment so I was strict of them to keep it as less dirty as possible, or they would be cleaning it up. They ended up cleaning it. Anyway, I wonder if it is allowed to reach each others journals, I’ll discuss it with Yixing. I wouldn’t want mine to be read, or else people will begin to point fingers at me. If someone does read it, I’m sorry, I never meant for this to happen. I’ll try to explain. Okay. I know I have said I worked as a doctor, and Kyungsoo supported me on that statement, but it’s a lie. Yes, I have medical training, I’m trying to pour less salt on the wound, but it wasn’t my main job. I work in a hospital, but moreover in the lower area, it’s practically a huge basement. My true job is as a scientist where I work underground in a restricted area where only people with tags to confirm their identity are able to come through. We perform.. unspeakable acts, experiments, diseases, the cures for those diseases, we have human test subjects who come in payed. It is written in their contract they cannot sue, nor any of their familiars or anyone if something damages him or her, or if they die. Most come who are desperate for money. I can’t help but pity them, I try not to, but when they die and people try to find the area their loved one were previously working in with anger and depression consuming them, it’s hard to look at. I often send them flowers with an anonymous apology note. Of course, it’s never enough. But there was this one who came in, we would be testing a disease on him along with three other visitors where they would be testing a few possible cures for it. I was furious, knowing the cause and effect of it, hey didn’t understand what they were dealing with. They excused it as ‘science’ I condemned it, I said it was imminent and useless test that will go askew. I said they were all conniving, mercenary people who were treating something treacherous and would regret it if they continue with their nefarious act. I warned them. I warned them, I didn’t listen to their asks of help with the project because that was no project. That was a disease that would eradicate the human race.

My name is Kim Minseok, and guilt is a gun trigger.

 

“What happened?”

Minseok spoke through the phone, he had previously excused himself from Kyungsoo and took a few steps away so he wouldn’t be able to listen in on his conversation.

“Uh, hi Minseok.”

“Get to the point Mr. Lee, now.”

“Oh, right! Ah, well, you know how many of us wanted you to stay so you would help us with project 564, I really wish you did. But, uh, the man who we injected the disease to was much more unstable than we thought. We locked him in the glass room. We are currently undergoing the cures, but we don’t know if it’s safe.”

“I don’t know where you are getting at. Who said I allowed you guys to give him the disease?! Surely I didn’t.”

“I respect you a lot, trust me I do. We never meant for this to happen, but we did listen. We didn’t give him the one specified, so we used.. the other one.”

Minseok stopped breathing for a second. Yes, there was another disease that everyone anxiously wanted to use. It was originally created for the ability to control people, but it didn’t work out, and the person who it is given to now won’t be able to be controlled by anyone. Not even themselves. It was put aside by Minseok himself, he kept it in his office. He never expected to be disrespected in such a way, so he left it in his drawer unprotected. They called it the DMC. It stood for devoured mind causality.

“You did what? You were never given permission to do that, what have you done? God, what have you done, I need to get there now. You idiot, this was exactly what I was afraid of. Now, there is a chance people will die.”

“I’m sorry–”

Minseok ended the call and quickly told Kyungsoo he had to go, then ran out of the building by taking the stairs and hopping in his car. Immediately, he was greeted by the one he was previously on the phone with. The man stood there with his pink hair shining in the sun, he joined recently as of a year ago and he still looked like a puppy lost in the streets. He was taller than him, but Minseok had the ability to make him nervous than any other scientist he has met due to his assertive aura.

“H.. hi Mr. Kim.”

“Let’s go.”

Minseok walked past him, taking his forearm and dragging him with him. He greeted patients like normal and the staff too with a sweet smile, until he made it to the janitor room. It was cramped with the two men in there, Minseok was fine but the other was flustered to be almost chest-to-chest with his superior. He then patted the wall with his hand, until he found the panel and pushed it. That’s where the same wall slid to the left, and there were glass stairs leading to the lab. This was the ‘basement.’

“Where is he?”

Minseok immediately asked.

“Ah, in the glass room, I told you through the phone.”

“Have the three visitors been injected with the cures?”

“Yes! But, since you never tried to include yourself, we don’t know what to do next considering we didn’t put the disease in them and we weren’t instructed to to begin with.”

“Are you saying it’s my fault, Mr. Taeyong?”

Taeyong gulped, scratching the back of his neck nervously by the mention of Minseok saying his first name. He shook his head quickly, this caused him to crack a smile from how much respect he received, it was cute and comforting to know at least _someone_ tried to listen to him.

“Well, we have no choice, but to sacrifice them.”

“What?”

“Taeyong, I don’t want to do this as much as you do, but it can’t still in there forever. It’s now or never.”

Taeyong hesitated, his eyes drifting to the side before he fixed his position and nodded.

“Right away.”

 

Another mistake. They sent in one, who was bitten into and almost torn apart before the thing lost interest, so let go of him. It was until they sent in the second one, it woke up as the same, it seemed the woman was too afraid and ran out but left the door open. They ran out and jumped onto her, eating her until there was nothing left besides a large puddle of blood and leftovers. The third man tried to escape but was met with the same fate, but Minseok couldn’t risk that man holding the curse and began to bang on the window that separated them. It caught their attention, and they ran to the window, slapping their bloody hands onto the glass. It was until he realized, it was breakable.

“Taeyong, go upstairs.”

When he didn’t move, Minseok yelled.

“Go upstairs!!”

Taeyong snapped out of his trance and nodded, leaving the lab and up the glass steps. Minseok stared ahead, the rest of the scientists behind him waiting for something else to happen. Then there was a crack in the glass. Another. There was a hole, they both tried to stick their arms through it, only for it to cut through their skin but slowly more cracks began to surround the hole. Minseok turned his head, where he saw the three cures used but there were more. He slowly took all of them, stuffing them in his pocket before he turned around, making his way towards the stairs.

“Where are you going?”

“There are weapons in the closet.”

With that, Minseok pulled down the lever from the top of the stairs, where a small section in the wall pushed in then pulled out a shotgun. He installed it when it was everyone’s day off. He then stepped into the janitors closet, where he shot the glass stairs until they all were nothing but shattered particles. The scientists began to shout at him, but Minseok only turned around and left the closet. He purposely left the little door open so if any of them survived before they were all miraculously killed, they would be able to escape. Taeyong was outside waiting for him, his fingers up to his lips as he stared nervously at the building until he saw Minseok.

“I have some news.”

“What happened now?”

“Well, uh, they’re going to blow up the hospital, or at least part of it..”

“Why?!”

Minseok turned to face the building, the workplace he has been with for the past six years and has really hated everyone in it if he had to be honest, besides a few who were on decent levels with him like Taeyong. 

“They don’t want to risk it, they said it will explode in an hour or two due to what is happening underground. They’re setting it up now.”

“Are they having the patients evacuate?” 

“Yes.”

“Then whatever, I don’t care. Everything will be taken care of, I hope.”

Minseok shrugged, his gaze remaining on the building until he noticed Taeyong took a few steps closer to him, so he rose his chin to look up at him.

“What–”

“Can I stay with you?”

“The hell? Why?”

“I’m scared and you’re older so..”

Minseok felt like he was on a TV show of some sort. Taeyong was a person he rarely speaks to, so why out of the blue does he have the guts to ask him something like this? He was acting like a young boy who needed help when in reality he is a twenty-two year old man who works as a scientist.

“Listen–”

“Please take care of me.”

“Jesus christ, I’m not your father.”

“I have a kid!!”

This was when Minseok stopped. This kid is twenty-two years old and he has a kid.

“How old?”

“Eighteen.”

“Thank god.”

Minseok actually thought this guy was messing around at such a young age.

“And he isn’t my kid, but it’s almost like father and son, you know?”

“And what? I’m going to be the dad?”

“Of course not!”

He wondered if he should have felt offended or not, he never meant it in a romantic way. Taeyong was, not anything special to him. Taeyong then sighed.

“Please? I have a premonition that whatever we–”

“You mean you guys.”

“okay, but whatever those guys and I created will get out.”

“That’s impossible.”

It was until people began to run out of the hospital, screaming, and Minseok realized Taeyong was right. He took his hand and quickly ran away from the building, it said on his resume where he lived. Then there was a loud explosion like sound, the air knocked both of them down from how close they were and they fell to the ground. Minseok sat up, wincing and reached up to touch near his eyebrow where the source of pain was coming from. He looked down at his finger to see blood, then turned to Taeyong, shaking him.

“Come on, get up before they escape. My car isn’t far.”

Taeyong slowly sat up, and Minseok helped him stand up. He noticed his jeans were ripped and his knees were bleeding, thankfully not severely but it will sting when he moves. They quickly ran to his car, getting in and Minseok driving off towards Taeyong’s house. He checked in his rear mirror, where he saw people in coats walking slowly, a few looking seriously injured but seemed calm. It was spreading, he didn’t succeed on killing the virus before it could make it in the outside world. Minseok took out his phone, typing a text directed for Kyungsoo.

_Run. Get somewhere safe. I failed._

 

Taeyong immediately opened the door to the car, shutting the door then running to the front door. He took out his keys, shoving them in the keyhole and pushing open the door.

“Mark!!”

“Why are you yelling?”

Just as Minseok exited his car, he heard the sound of a different voice. He slowly followed, looking around and up and down the streets to see if they had gotten this far. Not yet. Taeyong hugged Mark tightly, almost close to tears while the boy looked confused as to what was happening then he saw Minseok.

“Are you cheating on Ten?”

“What?!”

“Are you crying because he will gain the custody and you will be forced to pay child support?”

“I’m going to smack you. This is my superior, he works with me.”

“He works for me–”

“I work for him.”

Taeyong corrected himself.

“Where is Ten?”

“Asleep.”

“Go wake him up, we need to leave the city.”

“What? Why? I like it here.”

“You don’t understand.”

Minseok watched as Taeyong and Mark went back and forth at each other, then looked around before he began to get sick of their voices interrupting the other.

“Listen here kid, there is virus going on out there and I have no doubt they will come here and decide to have a meal here too. So, if you don’t want to be placed on a damn plate and be eaten alive, I suggest you listen to Taeyong on this and _leave._ ”

Mark blinked twice, he was shocked. Taeyong and Ten had always been patient with him, and they never tried to to above 18+ conversations along with be harsh with him. This was new.

“Wow. Okay, I understand.”

Taeyong sighed and rushed to Ten’s room, mumbling exchanged Minseok couldn’t make out so he just stood there with Mark.

“I like you.”

“I don’t care.”

Minseok decided to keep watch outside, he heard noises coming from inside the house, then he saw someone walking in the middle of the road. This was a quiet neighborhood, and he assumed only a madman would do that, so he quickly walked inside and shut the door. Mark was startles by the noise and looked up to see Minseok closing the curtains, blocking out any source of light from outside.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s here.”

A man with messy silver hair walked out, Minseok assumed it was Ten that they were discussing earlier.

“Uh, who are you?”

“Okay, I’m going to try to explain this quickly but thoroughly. I’m Kim Minseok, Taeyong works with me and there has been an accident in the lab where there is now a virus spreading where a person’s mind is completely destroyed and they cannot control themselves. So, it seems the only thing they could possibly think of is their hunger, and they resolve to cannibalism. There is no way to stop them, unless there is a cure.”

It took Ten and Mark a moment to take it all in, and Minseok realized they understood once they saw their fear spread across their faces.

“What’s going to happen? Taeyong is right, we need to leave.”

“We have to wait, there is one on the road and there is a huge chance more will come. I suggest we stay here for the night, and hopefully by morning it will be clear and we can leave.”

Once he finished, there was a thump on the door. Taeyong came out who had also heard it, Minseok held his finger up to his lips, a sign for them to be quiet. He then walked to the window near the door, he peered through it from the far left so he could get a good look at the front door. There he saw the same person from the middle of the road, but they weren’t human. Minseok let the curtain go before it could notice there was a meal in there, he walked to the light switches and turned them all off. He searched throughout the house and shut off every source of light. Then they all stood quietly, too afraid to move until Minseok’s phone began to ring and he quickly turned off the sound. He didn’t look at the contact. His only focus was keeping Taeyong, Ten, and Mark safe from his worse creation. There was grumble, before it banged on the door once. Mark yelped to which Ten put his hand over his mouth.

Silence. It was silent but there was no other sound that was louder to Minseok than right now.

 

Minseok woke up the next morning on the couch and to vibrations, he looked around and realized that he really was in Taeyong’s house, and what he thought was a dream was actually pure reality. He realized his phone was beneath his face and he rubbed his eyes to clear his vision. It was Kyungsoo.

“Are you okay? Kyungsoo?”

“Yeah, hi this isn’t your friend. Are you at the hospital? This is Minseok right?”

“I’d like to ask who this is first, where is Kyungsoo?”

“He’s here don’t worry, he’s safe with us but he wants you to be safe too. We’re all heading towards the hospital.”

“Don’t go there. I’m not there.”

Minseok continued to tell the address to the stranger, until he realized he didn’t know his name.

“Who is this?”

“I’m Park Chanyeol.”


	10. Devoured Soul

_July 20th, 2018_

“You don’t want to journal? All three of you?”

Yixing brought back an extra three for Taeyong, Ten, and Mark but they rejected them. They had faith one day, help will come. Previously not too long ago, Sehun found a radio and used batteries to get it working, most of the stations were off until they heard a voice. It turns out we have been blocked off from the rest of the world, the only other place we could go to was China where it had already spread. It was almost like the Hunger Games, Jongin had said and it didn’t relieve any of our stress. Stuck in a large area. The only solution was to live or die.

“I’m sure we will be taken care of.”

Taeyong reassured himself and his family, who agreed with silence and no talk backs regarding it. Yixing nodded, tossing the three notebooks on the coffee table. After they had found Minseok along with the other three, they realized they needed a larger base. So, they searched around the city for a house or building that was in a decent state, they found a beach house. The previous owners were in their beds, a gun in the husbands hand and Minseok found bullets in their heads. The wife, along with the children. It seems they couldn’t handle it. Jongdae and Chanyeol removed the bodies, the rest besides Minseok weren’t used to the smell of death. They had a proper burial, and wished peace upon them. After, they built higher fences, a higher gate, the upper floor was blocked off from anyone being able to see someone or any light inside. The lower floor was protected and remained unseen from beyond the fences. There was a pool in the back of their house, still clean, and the water was cold. It was a truly beautiful house. It was far from where their last location, though none of them took offense to it. But, the Lee family often had sad thoughts of their home. There was nothing to be done about it though, and they understood that well. Taeyong better than the other two.

Onto a more.. positive note.

Everyone has warmed up to each other, some more than others. Minseok walked out into the back of the house with the sun reflecting onto his white hair, gold rimmed spectacles adoring his eyes and gently dropping his crossbow (which Chanyeol gifted him with) onto the seat beside him then relaxed onto the chair. He let his head fall back on the chair with his eyes closed, Chanyeol walked out until he noticed he was outside too, and edged closer to him quietly, before planting a kiss on his lips. It startled him and his eyes opened, but his features relaxed when he realized who it was. He pushed him away.

“Don’t scare me like that.”

“You didn’t seem scared.”

“Well, I was. I just don’t give much of a reaction.”

Baekhyun swam upwards from the water, then took a deep breath in and relaxed his arms on the outer part of the pool. His hair drenched and half of his torso was pulled out of the pool. He hummed happily, just because Lurkers had taken over the city it doesn’t mean everyday they needed new supplies, there were also days where they could relax. Especially with a house like this. Yixing walked out of the house with a biscuit in his hand, nibbling at it until Baekhyun held his arms out to him, his eyes on the prize. The biscuit. But Yixing rejected him with a shake of his head.

“You can’t eat in the water. You will get sick and the pool will be floating with crumbs.”

“I’ll get out then!”

Baekhyun began to lift himself up until Yixing stopped him by kneeling down and placing a hand on his shoulder. He tore a piece off, before gesturing for him to open his mouth. He happily did so, his eyes closed until he felt the dry snack in his mouth then chewing it. Yixing pressed his lips against his forehead, then standing up to walk back inside but Baekhyun managed to grab his shirt, and pull him back into the pool. He was laughing in a strange way, disturbingly close to how Cardi B was laughing on that one show where they edited her face to seem bigger. Yixing didn’t float up, but Baekhyun was pulled into the water. It startled him and he desperately tried to swim back up until he opened his eyes, finding his boyfriend laughing with bubbles escaping his mouth. They both reached the surface, both coughing especially Yixing from laughing underwater.

“I thought I was going to die!!”

“When I was about to fall in the water, I thought the same too. Don’t do that.”

Yixing climbed out of the pool by using the ladder, flipping his hair back then greeting Sehun who walked out with a soda in hand.

“Woah, you’ve been working out?”

“Yes I have, stare as much as you want trust me this will probably be gone by tomorrow.”

Sehun ran his fingers down his six pack which he had been working really hard on, but can’t help to eat the sweets he is provided with. Nowadays, it is hard to find candy that isn’t expired, they have to eat canned food or explore further to find food that will suit their tastes.

“The food will be gone by tomorrow too if you keep sneaking snacks to your room at night. I hear you!”

Minseok glared, Sehun nodded with a genuine smile then rolled his eyes once he turned back to Yixing. 

“We are running low on snacks though.”

Jongdae spoke with a bag of potato chips in hand, walking to one of the chairs and sitting himself down.

“Well you’re not helping by eating it all at once!”

“I’m hungry alright?!”

“We eat two meals a day!!”

“I used to eat four.”

“That’s not healthy.”

Minseok sighed, finding difficulty to taming his patience for there to be more instead of constantly scolding the two. He was glad the two got along, but they were eaters and after they decided to get together the snacks have been disappearing more frequently without a trace other than the crumbs in their shared room. Along with the trash they leave around. They weren’t exactly clean. Speaking of supplies and materials, Minseok was beginning to have a feeling that soon they will have to go further beyond the city to search for more food, otherwise they would have to cut down on their meals. Thankfully, they didn’t have to worry about electricity for the beach house owned solar panels on the roof. The gas tank, soon it will need to be filled again, especially if they have to travel farther for food. Also, Lurkers have been low on food. Minseok has seen the dead animals on the streets and alleyways, which means another possible meal has been wasted. It was beginning to get risky, the cures were sitting in his bedside cabinet. It was already difficult enough having a psycho as a boyfriend who doesn’t believe in personal space. He had too many things to hide, and Chanyeol was giving him more problems by never leaving his side. Minseok has already injected all three of the serums, he was positive it was dangerous and a bold move to pull, but if he died, if he was infected, there was no chance of Korea and China being saved. Yes, Taeyong was here, but hell he doubted he would be of help. He didn’t mean it in an offensive way, but Taeyong wasn’t the most reliable person. Maybe if he hadn’t killed everyone in the lab.. why had he done it? He couldn’t remember, neither could he recall why he saved Taeyong out of all of them. There were people smarter than him. Perhaps it was the respect he was given and he pitied letting him die for his own cynical reasons.

“Minseok?”

He found Chanyeol’s face above him, his leg relaxed over his while almost his whole side trying to squeeze into the small space. Minseok.. didn’t love him. When they first kissed, it was Chanyeol who made the first move, who held his hand in the middle of the night and told him he wanted to be with him as long as he lived.

“Life is short. Even shorter since the virus has spread, I used to not care if I died the next day. I thought, nobody ever loved me. The nurse from the prison, she never loved me and I never did for her. My family, no. When I saw you walk out of the house with Taeyong and his family, I thought you were just another person who would mean nothing to me. But, when I saw you grab the crossbow and kill that Lurker behind Mark, then pushing them into the car, I thought you were.. cool. Cool is what I assumed. I could never love another man, right? I’m Chanyeol, people see me as a killer who could possibly never have romantic feelings, right? I was looked at that so much, I believed it myself. I realize now, it’s not true. You’re not cool– well you are, yes you are, but you were more than that, you’re more than that. You’re beautiful.”

Minseok accepted him. He thought it would be better to be ‘in love’ with the enemy rather than be against each other for rejecting him. Was it cold-hearted of him? Of course. He’s a terrible person for doing something like this. But Minseok had a belief that if you hurt many people, you deserve to be hurt too. Chanyeol deserved to be hurt.

“Minseok!! You’re not listening!”

“Oh, sorry, what is it?”

Chanyeol stared at him until he smiled at him so brightly, his eyes were like the sun and his lips as pink as cherry blossoms.

“I love you!”

Chanyeol pressed his lips against his, eyes closed and his hand gently resting on his cheek. Minseok eye’s were open.

How?

How could Chanyeol stare at him with so much.. happiness? So much glee and genuine honesty in his words that matched his sweet kisses. If he was someone he saw on the street, would he think he was a murderer? Would he think he deserved to be hurt? Does he? Minseok can’t help but question. He was.. another person in their group, what did Chanyeol see in him that makes him want to smile and his world fill with happiness.

“I.. love you too.”

Chanyeol deserved to be hurt.

“I love you so much more,”

He deserves to be hurt.

“Minseok, if we ever escape, or if they ever find a cure..”

He..

“Will you marry me?”

On the other side, Jongdae stared. His eyes without blinking, his pupils smaller than usual, his gaze aimed at Minseok. He could feel it in his bones. Something was wrong. Why hadn’t he closed his eyes? Minseok could feel eyes on him, and he turned his head slightly until he met Jongdae’s stare with his. What was he looking at him for?

“Yes.”

Jongdae immediately stood up and reached in his jeans for the pocket knife he kept until he saw Sehun, his hand waiting for the next move.

“Baby, is something wrong?”

What was he doing?

“Oh.. nothing.”

Minseok glared up at him, until he felt Chanyeol’s arms wrapped around him and he sighed.

“There isn’t enough space.”

“I don’t care.”

“I do, get off.”

Once he did, Minseok left his seat and walked inside. Just as he made it to his room, he let himself fall onto the mattress he and Chanyeol shared. Cure. Hearing that word from him was alarming. He had a cure, or at least he thinks he does. When will he tell them he isn’t what they thought he was?

“You liar.”

Minseok sat up from the voice, and he saw Jongdae standing in the doorway. He kept himself from laughing.

“What are you speaking about?”

“You don’t love him. What kind of person stares at their lover like that?”

“Ah, so you think just because you fuck around with Sehun you’re cupid? There are many types of love.”

“Yours is fake. Meanwhile, Chanyeol’s is genuine.”

“How can a murderer feel love when all he has felt is shame and greed?”

His talk about the topic seemed to anger Jongdae more.

“You’re talking to the guy who has murdered more people than he has, and Chanyeol was never diagnosed with anything related to him losing sanity. He is just as normal as you.”

“I have never killed anyone.”

“You’re a pretty damn good liar, I would have believed you if I hadn’t seen your journal. Like I said, you’re just like him.”

The smile on Minseok’s face fell, and one grew on Jongdae’s. He read his journal. He knew what he had done.

“So, when are you going to tell them huh? Whether I tell him or not, Chanyeol will find out. He’ll realize that you and Taeyong are guilty for this mess.”

“Taeyong has nothing to do with this.”

“Oh? From your journal, it seemed you thought of him as stupid. Surprises me you would defend him, but you’re right. It’s you. You started the virus because of your stubborn acts, maybe if you had stayed at the lab and prevented them from making that mistake, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Nobody would have died. Hell, you’re just a heartless murder. Lurkers didn’t kill those people, you did.”

Minseok shoved Jongdae against the wall, who laughed loudly.

“See?! You know I’m not wrong.”

He laughed in his face, when Minseok pulled the pocket knife out from his jeans and held it to his neck, it amused him.

“Ah? What are you going to do? Kill me? Go ahead! They will know you killed me, I wrote in my journal that if anyone were to kill me it would be you! So go on, do it. It won’t make anything better.”

Minseok didn’t want to do this. He never wanted this, he wanted to pull his arm down yet couldn’t help but to press the knife closer to his throat until he saw blood. It triggered him and he dropped the knife, Jongdae pushed him away and held onto his neck, the blood sipping between his fingers.

“I won’t say anything.. but I suggest you get to fixing the mess you created.”

With that, Jongdae left to clean up his neck. In a way, actually in all the ways he was right. Minseok was tired of living in these conditions despite possibly being irresistible to them but he had friends. Jongdae was somewhat a friend. He should make an attempt, but having only two samples of each of the three cures wasn’t enough. He needed more, so he had to make up an excuse to visit the hospital.

 

“Yixing, we’re running low on snacks and medical supplies. I think we should go out again.”

“You think so?”

Minseok asked the next early morning, he pulled out a list he previously made.

“The roll of bandages is thinning up a bit. We have two bags of potato chips, lack of vegetables, water, and considering the cold will come back in around two months we will need medicine.”

“I see, you’re right. Better be safe than sorry. I’ll tell the others and we will be outside in an hour.”

An hour passed and everyone were walking out the door with their weapons. Yixing sat in the drivers seat, feeling the truck bounce a bit from the few men hopping in the cargo bed. Ten, Mark, Jongin and Kyungsoo decided to stay home, they didn’t want add so many people to the car and keep their house safe from any Lurkers or possible selfish survivors. They weren’t much of the fighter type either, especially Taeyong’s family and it seemed Taeyong wanted to be the one who kept them out of harm by sacrificing himself. Minseok sat in the rear as he always did, Jongdae across from him who ran his hand up and down his sniper with a moist wipe, his eyes consistently concentrating on cleaning it to Minseok. He rolled his eyes, and leaned his elbow on the panel with his hand hanging freely out of the truck. The four of them jutted forward from the start of the ride, then it began silently as they drove down the rocky road. As they saw Lurkers, they stabbed the ones who grew closer to them and the others who tried to have a free ride and meal. Then they found themselves in the city they previously lived in, Yixing parked into an alleyway near a convenience store. Sehun hopped off immediately to strike the Lurker creeping towards them, his aim for the neck fired too hard and his axe hit the brick wall. The head fell near his feet and he turned his axe, smashing the head of his weapon into its brain.

“Don’t be careless.”

Jongdae sighed.

“You know it’s the brain.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t informed that a Lurkers head could grow legs and bite me.”

“Don’t be childish.”

Minseok commented as he walked past them, the rest soon followed them and snuck into the store, grabbing a basket as they walked in and taking the food that hasn’t expired. Or seem in good condition. Baekhyun reached for bread, then turned around instantly when he heard air hit him and saw a Lurker collapse near him with an arrow in its head.

“I would advise to be more aware.”

“Yes, papa.”

Baekhyun teased, reaching down to pull the arrow out from its head with a few swishing around to loosen the insides sticking to it. He then handed it over to him along with the bread, dropping it into his basket.

“Expires next month.”

“Got it.”

Located in the backroom were food that would be considered more valuable towards them for their extended periods of freshness and good health. A variety of sauces, spices, and vegetables that could easily and deliciously compliment a meal.

“Hey, it’s raining!”

Chanyeol pointed outside, and it surely was. Clouds swallowed the blue sky, nothing but a gloomy gray view from above staring down at them. It would be difficult to travel, if fog decided to slip into the picture it would become dangerous.

“Let’s go to the hospital quickly then, everyone has items in their basket correct?”

“Yes!”

The hospital wasn’t too far, but they ran and were careful not to slip on the wet pavement and roads. As they came closer, Minseok could feel his conscious grow cautious and almost something alarming began to grow in him. They should have brought the truck if something were to happen, it was too late now. They slowed down as they made it towards the front entrance of the hospital, where the glass doors were shattered and one of two of the doorknobs were gone. Taeyong pulled in the door, entering with his hand holding it open for the others to enter. As Minseok walked in, he felt sweat trickle down his temple, he could hear the voices of children crying, the vigorous screaming of parents. It was all in his head. But he knew they weren’t fake, it had happened after he left. He was only listening to them now. Chanyeol placed a hand on his shoulder then grabbed his wrist when Minseok swung at him, startled.

“Are you okay?”

Minseok panted, looking from Chanyeol’s worried gaze to the floor that contained puddles of blood or splats.

“Was this where you worked?”

“I.. yes.”

“You loved children right? It must have hurt, but it’s okay. I’m– We’re here for you.”

Chanyeol rubbed his shoulder with a tiny smile, pressing his forehead against his and placed a soft kiss onto his nose. Minseok strangely felt comfort in his words and actions presented on himself, and he nodded.

“Thank you.”

“Of course baby.”

Minseok then used the map on the wall that explained the floors, then pointed at the rooms where it was highest possible chance there were bandages and medicine. He advised to stay away from floor 3, where that owns a large room children were put to play while their parents checked on patients. It was a possibility they were left there to eat each other alive and the last one standing was the winner, that kind of cruel game kids loved. Meanwhile, Minseok said he would go for the basement.

“I’ll come.”

Chanyeol said with his hand raised, as if he was a student who wanted to take the attendance to the office for a substitute teacher. Minseok wanted to clench his teeth.

“It would be dangerous for you to go alone.”

“I doubt anyone would be down there.”

“It’s fine. We shouldn’t risk, and we have to stick together.”

“Like glue..”

Minseok grumbled.

“Taeyong, you come too.”

Taeyong nodded, reaching behind to grab his machete with an eager smile. Yixing and Baekhyun took the second floor, Sehun and Junmyeon the fourth, while Jongdae the fifth and sixth. Junmyeon went with Sehun due to not being so experienced, and Jongdae had been doing this longer than he has and is capable of taking care of himself. After their all done with their floors, they will divide once again to search the seventh and eighth. Minseok, Chanyeol, and Taeyong the first floor and basement.  
Minseok walked into the janitors closet, where the little door remained open. He saw the dried blood surrounding it along with handprints of his fellow scientists, he bent down and let his body try to meet the floor, until he dropped. He wore a backpack, it was open and Chanyeol noticed his journal had fallen out without him noticing. A small grin made his way to his face. He was his boyfriend after all, why not have a little peak? After Chanyeol and Taeyong entered, Minseok and Taeyong began to explore while Chanyeol read. Minseok walked into the glass room, and that’s when he saw it. The third patient. He walked over and immediately knelt down to his corpse, he was dead of course but.. he was bitten. Yet, he hadn’t become a Lurker. He should have. So, that meant.. the third cure was the real cure.

“Taeyong!”

Minseok stood up as he yelled out his name, but when he turned around he saw the redhead. Chanyeol. Who held his journal. Minseok looked from his book to Chanyeol’s face, he couldn’t open his mouth, it had gone dry and he wasn’t able to comprehend words.

“Minseok–“

“Listen, Chanyeol I never meant to lie–“

“It was you!!”

Chanyeol yelled, it caused Minseok to flinch and he saw the anger along with sadness that consumed his expression and eyes. He had never yelled at him. Or become angry with him.

“You.. you started this. The Lurkers, it was you, you’re the reason why Korea and China were taken over by the undead. You were foolish and had too much self-respect, you knew what the possible outcome could have been yet you ignored them anyway. You ignored Taeyong. The other scientists _you_ killed! For yourself.”

“No no, Chanyeol, listen to me.”

Why was he defending himself? Why did he feel heartbroken from Chanyeol treating him how he should be treated from the things he had done? Why did he want to cry?

“Minseok, I wouldn’t care less because no one has ever been there for me and no one was ever important to me. But.. I have friends. Yixing’s family, slaughtered. Jongdae’s dog, Sugar, died. Taeyong’s family could have died too. Our friends loved ones were killed by the things you could have prevented.”

Minseok knew these things well, but for someone like Chanyeol to confront him about this made him feel worse. Yixing’s family. Jongdae’s dog.

“Chanyeol..”

“What? What Minseok? What could you possibly want to say to me now?”

Chanyeol wiped the tears threatening to spill out of his eyes, Minseok opened his mouth but his eyes were drawn to movement behind him. He looked behind Chanyeol.. a Lurker. Too close.

“Chanyeol–“

Minseok shoved him out of the way and the Lurker fell on top of him instead. He tried to push it off, but then screamed when it tore his shoulder open with its teeth. Minseok’s arms felt like jelly, and they fell, the Lurker continued to enjoy a meal for only a few seconds until Taeyong walked in and rose his weapon, before slicing it through its neck. The skin felt so easy to cut through. Chanyeol rubbed his bleeding head, then looked up to find Taeyong pushing the Lurker off Minseok and curse under his breath from the look of his wound.

“Minseok, stand up.”

“The cures, they will overlap each other, I don’t know if the third will be successful..”

Minseok remembered he inserted all three, the other two were useless and there was a chance they would take over instead of the real cure.  
He could still turn into a Lurker. Taeyong didn’t know what to do, he was bleeding too much and the wound was the size of a dinner plate. There was a chance of him becoming a Lurker, they didn’t know the actual time it takes and if it depends on if it’s a scratch or bite, and if bite how deep? If scratch, how severe? They didn’t know, so the time for Minseok was unknown, also if he would ever turn at all. Taeyong dragged him to the operating table outside of the glass room, lifting him up by the help of Chanyeol. Minseok was sweating immensely, the pain was already too much, what he wanted was for none of the others to see him like this.

“What do I do?”

“Leave.”

“We can’t–“

“The cure is the third, it’s in my backpack and labeled. You will know which one it is. Change it into a gas, go to the border and show you’re human, they will let you guys in and you will give them the cure. They’ll make more, enough to save China and Korea. The people who survived will be safe, you guys will be safe.”

“No!”

“Why do you have to be so stubborn?! Why can’t you just listen?”

Minseok yelled when Chanyeol protested.

“I always listen to you! When you ask for favors, I do them, when you want something, I do it, when you asked me to be your boyfriend I hesitated but said yes!! I never liked you, never loved you, never felt the same. I didn’t want to be your boyfriend, I just wanted to fix everything. But you came and made things more complicated. My whole focus was on the cure.”

“Is it not? Didn’t you say you never felt the same?”

“It was like that for a while– I tried to convince myself I didn’t feel anything for you, I told Jongdae you were just a murderer but I realized you’re not and I started to actually love you without making amends with it!!”

Minseok sat up and rose his hand at him, then sighed out of frustration and clawed at his own face. Taeyong sighed and turned around, walking towards the many desks, seemed to be searching for something. Then he found it. It was a sheet of the ingredients used for the third cure.

“Let’s go.”

“But Minseok–“

“He will be a Lurker at this point!”

“Doesn’t he have an extra cure?”

“Yes, but the people on the other side need it because they will require a sample of it! We can’t use it on him. And we don’t have time to make another, it took a few hours the first time.”

Chanyeol looked back at Minseok, whose hands remained in his face then saw blood began to slip out between his fingers. He had cut his face.

“Minseok..”

“Don’t you see him?!”

Taeyong walked over and forcefully pulled his hand away, where Minseok looked up scared and the eye he scratched was the same milky gray. Yet he had not began to act like a Lurker, he was containing it and taking it out on himself.

“It’s coming to him, and fast, probably because of how much the Lurker managed to claw out of him, his blood is most likely being intoxicated with a Lurkers and soon his brain will turn to mush.”

“Chanyeol.. I’m scared.”

Minseok ran his finger down the wound over his eye he did himself, then back at Chanyeol.

“I don’t want to kill you, please leave..”

Jongdae suddenly came through, throwing himself in and halted when he saw Minseok.

“Shit.”

He took out his gun and aimed with no trouble.

“Wait!”

Then he pulled the trigger. It hit his chest, drifted a little to the left near the center. He missed. Minseok sat there, he coughed a few times before throwing up blood, his hands feeling up the wound. The hole in his shirt was beginning to surround in a dark red liquid.

“Sorry. But we need to go, the children are out.”

“Thank you..”

Minseok fell from the operating table, landing onto his stomach. His vision was beginning to blur, but he turned his head to try to make out what was happening. He could see a bright red, Chanyeol’s hair, moving around constantly along with two other colors, pink and black, they forced them out. He heard the familiar sound of the little door closing but the sounds of yelling continue only to slowly begin to fade, and that’s when he decided to let sleep take over.

“I love you, Chanyeol.”

 

_”Minseok!”_

The man could hear his name flow through his mind, it seemed to be interminable only it was often replaced by an even louder shout of his name. A headache began to form. Then he could finally open his eyes. He was surrounded by the color white, would this be where he would be serving his internment? Was this his punishment for being so selfish?

What was he being punished for again? What selfish act did he commit? He couldn’t remember. All he knew was his own name. Minseok. Who was yelling out for him? 

Minseok looked down, he saw his bare feet and legs. He was naked. He felt ashamed despite being stuck in his own mind. Or where was he? Then he saw something reflect onto the floor, and he turned to see a large screen where it was pitch black. A TV of some sort? A memory? Then he saw a man, he had bright red hair but it wasn’t the only thing that certain color. His eyes were bloodshot, had he been crying? Over what? Minseok looked around, there was no one else with him, if he asked a question would it be answered?

“Why is this man crying?”

No answer.

Then it was almost like someone transferred him the information. He was crying because he had lost someone important to him.

“Who did he lose?”

_You._

“But I do not know this man.”

_He knows you._

“A stalker perhaps?”

Minseok joked but was surprised by the next answer.

_Your boyfriend._

“Ah, really? He does seem cute. Hey, did I die?”

_No._

“What happened to me?”

_You will find out if you answer this. Do you want to go back?_

“Go back where?”

_Home._

“Are you God?”

_I’m not God._

“Then who are you, eh?”

_I’m you._

“So, I’m God?”

He didn’t receive a response from his idiotic question. Minseok stared up at the screen, walking towards it and it became smaller, flying down to his level so he would be able to see more clearly. This was his boyfriend. Then the screen began to move. It showed the redhead running out of a hospital with around six other people, it skipped ahead and there were more people in the truck but now two to hold them all together. Both trucks included bags. Bags of food. They were driving out of town it seemed, his boyfriend held a backpack to his chest with sobs leaving his throat. Minseok couldn’t hear it, but could tell by the way his chest moved and his facial expression.

_Do you want to change what happened?_

“If this is me, what do you think I would choose? The me on the other side, in his world?”

There was no answer.

“Well, I choose what the other me would want! Whether it’s stay dead or be with him, I’ll choose what he would have wanted! Or, what I would have wanted.”

Minseok waited until he knew the response.

_Okay._

He waited. It was until a few moments passed, he didn’t understand time wherever he was, but it felt like hours when it was only a few minutes. Then he began to worry. Inside him, he wanted to go back, but what if he woke up and realized he wanted to stay where he was now. Minseok chewed his lip, then he heard a gun shot.

“Huh?”

Minseok looked around, then he felt pain in his chest area and he looked down. There was a bullet wound.

“W.. Woah– hey! What’s going on?”

He then screamed when he felt something almost.. eating at him, and he looked down at his body until he saw his shoulder. A wound began to open up like a flower in the spring blooming beautifully, only this was painful and he began to bleed. Once a drop of blood collided with the floor, the whole room went from a pure white to the color of his blood. Minseok breathed rapidly, then reached up holding his eye when he felt pain consume it. He then looked at the palm of his hand and saw blood in a straight line.

“It hurts, what’s going on?”

Minseok whimpered.

_You’re going back._

 

“What if he wakes up and kills us?”

“He won’t. There is a chance that part of the real cure actually prevented it.”

“Fine. If he wakes up as a Lurker, I’m throwing you at him. No joke.”

“Well, Jongdae, Chanyeol might be right. You said he wasn’t really hostile right?”

“His left eye is almost white!”

“I mean, it could be seen as attractive can’t it?”

Minseok saw the redness in his eyelids due to the sun shining on his face, he turned his head to avoid it and tried to open his eyes. Once he did, he blinked a few times before he realized he was staring at a knee. Then he looked up to see Sehun.

“Sehun?”

Sehun yelled and accidentally jammed the end of his axe into his face, causing him to groan and turn his body the other way. He felt his eyes leak with tears from the impact, holding his face with both hands.

“Sehun!! You idiot!”

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Chanyeol, calm down.”

“He’s crying! Goddamnit.. Minseok, let me see.”

Chanyeol managed to pry his hands off his face, but Minseok continued to sob from the pain. The air invading his open wound on his shoulder, his aching chest, and now his face. Chanyeol shushed him soothingly, pulling him closer until he was leaning against his chest. Jongdae and Sehun were worried something would spark in him, but decided not to say anything.

“It hurts.. hurts so much.”

Minseok cried, Chanyeol studied his face and sighed, then gently pressed his thumbs down onto both cheeks and Minseok immediately smacked his hands away. He guessed that was where bruises would form. Sehun hit him too hard.

“I’m sorry..”

Chanyeol wiped his tears before they could slip from his eye, it stung but Minseok let him. He let himself calm down, occasional hiccups leaving him from crying so hard just now and shaking his whole body.

“Where’s Taeyong? Ten and Mark?”

Minseok whispered and Chanyeol replied with the same volume.

“We found another truck considering it would be too crowded, they are following us very closely I can see them. They’re fine though, all three of them. Jongin and Kyungsoo are with them too.”

He didn’t give him a response until he asked another question.

“Are we going to the border?”

“Yes. It has been a few hours, we have gas back here so we won’t run out, neither will Taeyong. We will be fine very soon, like you said, we will be safe. I have so much to tell you, but when you’re taken care of we can talk.”

“Okay.”

 

Minseok was worried. On the way, he realized how beat up he looked, overtime the bruise had gone a mix of purple and yellow. Wounds and blood covered his body, his left eye was almost white, he looked like a mess. What if they mistake him as a Lurker? Would they give the others a chance to explain? Or would they get their guns ready? Minseok thought of grabbing Jongdae’s gun and shoving it in his mouth, but he would be stopped before he could. Then he felt the car stop, and it didn’t feel like it was the third time to refill the gas tank.

“We’re here.”

“I can’t, no no I can’t. They’ll kill me, and then they will kill you.”

“What? Don’t speak nonsense.”

Chanyeol sighed.

“No no, listen, they won’t take any chances. If I was them, I know I would be scared and wouldn’t want to take a risk. You know me.”

“Yes, but you would possibly give us a chance, so who says they won’t?”

“You’re making a mistake–“

Minseok was forcefully pulled out of the car and onto his feet, he saw the others get out of the car. Baekhyun followed out after Junmyeon, with his stained bat and he turned to Minseok.

He smiled.

“I’m glad you made it.”

Then Baekhyun, despite being filthy, hugged Minseok tightly. He pulled away and patted his shoulder, he turned around to face the other end of the road. There was a huge space between them and the tunnel. In front of it were wires, signs, spikes and other things capable of impaling them stood in their way. Yixing took Baekhyun’s hand, Sehun held Jongdae’s while Chanyeol wrapped an arm around Minseok. Then the twelve of them began to walk towards them, with weapons and bags of food, but when they got closer they heard them.

“Stop!”

They stopped. Yixing opened his mouth to speak.

“We are survivors, we are injured and have traveled far to be here! Please let us in!”

There was silence.

“Any bitten?”

Of course, they expected the question. Yet didn’t know how to answer it. Yixing looked back at Minseok, who looked like a child ready to break out in tears. Then he looked back.

“Yes!”

“Who?!”

They heard the sounds of guns clicking, and Junmyeon looked at Yixing.

“Why would you say that?”

“He is okay! We have a cure, and used it on him. He is fine, please let him through!”

This caused a discussion between everyone on the other side.

_”I suggest we trick them, and kill the infected.”_

_“But if the infected wasn’t cured, he would be eating them.”_

_“We shouldn’t debate this, obviously the infected isn’t going wild and killing his friends. So, they must have a cure!”_

_“We can save South Korea and China.”_

“Come forward!”

They all let out sigh of relief, and they did as instructed. Soon, they were right in front of the gate.

“We will be forced to apprehend the possible infected! Please understand!”

They opened the gate, and multiple guards came out to do what they said.

“We didn’t agree to this–“

Baekhyun backed up, the armed men searched for who could possibly be the one until they saw Minseok.

“Him!”

Chanyeol tried to fight them off, but more guards came and managed to pin Minseok down. He was yelling as they placed handcuffs on him then a muzzle as if he was a wild dog.

“Please understand.”

They muttered to him, Minseok couldn’t help but cry. They finally stood him up, and brought him inside first before the rest could. Chanyeol tried to call out his name.

“Chanyeol, he will be fine.”

Junmyeon tried to reassure him, but it didn’t seem to be working.

“They are scared, but they will see he is fine and let him go. Well, maybe let him ago after they make more copies of the cure and give it to him.”

As they walked in, they were happy yet couldn’t help but be nervous at the same time for their friend. The eleven men were all checked for any bites, where there were none, and tended to any injures. They took a blood sample, fingerprint, have them explain their identities and family. Then they placed them all on the other side of the road, to relax and eat their food. One by one they came out cleared, but Jongdae came out laughing.

“They don’t know who I am yet, but they will probably throw me in jail once they figure out.”

“Aren’t you worried?”

“Of course not, I’ve been there before, I know my tricks.”

Sehun frowned.

“I’ll miss you though.”

“Visit me until then.”

Jongdae took his cheeks, pinching them and using baby talk.

“It’s okay baby, your hubby will be back.”

“Never mind, go to jail.”

“Ah, I’m kidding!”

“You’re annoying.”

Sehun muttered, but Jongdae managed to slip into his lap and kiss his lips sweetly. He tried to not fall into his trap, but melted into the kiss and his hands held onto his waist.

“Jesus christ– leave!”

Junmyeon rolled his eyes.

“I’m going to miss this beauty. My first love.”

Baekhyun stared at his metal bat, where it held faint bite marks and scratches. He kissed the lower of it then spat out when he tasted the blood and material in his mouth.

“What? I’m not your first love?”

“More or less.”

Yixing shook his head, faking the disappointment on his face but Baekhyun dropped his bat with a smile as he held his arms out for him.

“Ah, I’m kidding I’m kidding. I love you!”

Baekhyun dragged out the word you with his eyes closed and a happy smile playing on his lips, Yixing felt his arms wrap around his neck then locking together, his body was forced to move forward as Baekhyun scooted closer to him too. He then placed a kiss on his cheek before rubbing his head on him, humming softly.

“Guys!”

Chanyeol ran out of the blue tents the moment they heard yelling, the two couples immediately stopped what they were doing and Junmyeon quietly thanking him for interrupting.

“It’s Minseok, they’re doing more than we thought. They are taking more blood out of him so they can inspect the DNA, will see how he managed to almost capture the appearance of a Lurker but not fully become one, test a few things, then take him to the hospital where they will heal his injuries and give him more blood.”

“And you couldn’t stop them?”

“No, they wanted to know more despite having the cure. It’s useless, but it’ll put Minseok in so much more pain and that’s what I’m worried for.”

Chanyeol sat down with them and placed his face in his hands. Taeyong then walked over, and sat next to him with his hand on his shoulder. He spoke once he looked at him.

“Minseok will be able to go through it.”

“He’s sensitive..”

“Don’t you remember what you told him?”

He didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Minseok keeps these things in mind, especially since it came from you. But I know he is determined to go through this, because after all, he will have a wedding to attend. With you as the groom.”

Back at the beach house, Taeyong had heard him.

_”Minseok, if we ever escape, or if they ever find a cure. Will you marry me?”_

How could he have forgotten?

“You’re.. you’re right. You’re right! We will be able to stand through this, and in the end, Minseok will be alright. We.. we can be happy, as husbands.”

The thought of it made Chanyeol’s stomach twist and he began to cry loudly.

“Hey, hey! Why are you crying?!”

“Because I’m so happy Junmyeon! Shut up!”

“You know, I can take you back out there and kill you!”

“No! You can’t kill me when I’m getting married!”

 

Chanyeol waited anxiously in the waiting room of the hospital, he almost fought everyone when they were back waiting at the blue tents. He could hear Minseok scream and wanted to stomp over there to investigate but his friends kept him from doing so. They reassured him he will soon be moved to the hospital and it will be over. So, here he waited. Jongdae was on the run, despite living a few months without the system he had his wallet and would be able to live in a luxurious apartment once again but with Sehun. They exchanged numbers, then he left. Yixing’s phone had immediately began to work once there were accessible network and he received multiple texts from relatives. He messages them back, and only a few replied, thanking God he was alive. Baekhyun was happy for him and hugged him when Yixing couldn’t help but start to tear up. Junmyeon knew the wine deal was already abolished, but he called his company to make sure everything was alright. They were surprised to hear from him. The others meanwhile wanted to know if they would be covered in buying new homes since their previous ones were taken over, so they left. Taeyong had spoke to Chanyeol before he left.

“Text me if he turns out alright.”

“Okay.”

It had been a few hours of waiting, he was undergoing surgery and they were searching for a person to receive blood from. Minseok was blood type B, so he can have a positive and negative B and the same with O. It was only half an hour ago they found one, Chanyeol couldn’t recall his name but it began with a D. Soon he saw the man come out, he wore a collared shirt with the single button undone to reveal his meticulous collarbones. In red it read Cleveland on his shirt, Chanyeol could tell that wasn’t where he’s from though, the black beret topping off his lilac dyed hair with a tassel hanging off. He stopped in front of Chanyeol.

“Are you Park Chanyeol?”

“Who wants to know?”

“Probably the police, eh? I’m joking, I’m Doyoung.”

Doyoung held out his hand for a shake, which Chanyeol followed along with before the man sat down.

“Ah, you guys are the outsiders right? The ones who survived the.. the mort vivant?”

He spoke french. Chanyeol assumed that he was born in Asia, but perhaps moved at a young age and became bilingual in French thanks to his family. It was pretty self-explanatory just by the way he looked and the accent coming along with his words.

“The Lurkers?”

“If that’s what you call it, yes. I’m surprised, your friend said there were twelve of you, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, you guys really are brave. You have my respect, I’m glad to have donated.”

Doyoung patted Chanyeol’s lap.

“He will be fine, trust me. He seems like he has gone through a lot, but I’m sure you guys will get through it.”

“Thank you, I hope the cure will heal him internally.”

“What?! You guys also have found the cure? Wow, you truly are amazing.”

“Don’t flatter me, he gave us the cure, it wasn’t me.”

“I will give him my thanks, I never experienced it but saw how horrifying it was on TV. I am very grateful.”

“Park Chanyeol?”

A doctor who stood at around 6’0 called out his name as he walked out of the hallway with a clipboard in his hand. Doyoung stood along with him but was startled when Chanyeol looked at him.

“Ah, sorry, should I leave? It was a subconscious action, I’m just worried of your friend but my time here is done.”

Doyoung apologized and turned to leave but Chanyeol grabbed his wrist before he could leave.

“You can come.”

 

Minseok laid asleep in the hospital bed, bandages covering his left eye and right shoulder, along with his abdomen beneath the hospital gown. Doyoung stood awkwardly at the doorway for a few seconds, unaware of what to do and what he was allowed to do considering he didn’t _know_ this man. He was only worried for his health and wanted to thank him for his bravery. He was asleep though. Chanyeol then gestured for him to sit down next to him, he immediately did as told without a second thought.

“Do you know how long he has been asleep?”

“Mr. Seo had said he will need to rest for the rest of the day and more, his injuries are extremely severe and it was only luck they managed to get rid of the bullet safely without puncturing anything. But again, he was almost eaten alive.”

Doyoung softly cursed in his second language, he had not seen what Minseok or Chanyeol has, but by the look of it, he didn’t want to.

“Well, the right thing to do at a time like this is hope for the best. What I am truly worried for is his mental stage, I hope he is not traumatized in any way due to this.”

“He.. he’s strong. Stronger than me, stronger than those Lurkers, if someone pushes him down he can stand up again by himself. He’s that independent.”

Doyoung nodded.

“I believe you, my friend.”

 

The two had fallen asleep. It was 3 in the morning, neither of them had felt the need to leave and without hesitation let sleep overcome their senses. Doyoung continuously almost fell forward until he found something to lean on, Chanyeol’s shoulder, and then slept comfortably. Chanyeol’s head met the wall, where he snored quietly. This was one of the best naps he had ever taken since he was in jail, he didn’t have to worry about Lurkers breaking in.

“Chanyeol?”

Minseok woke up. He looked around the dark room, then tried to search tor his crossbow when he saw two figures but he couldn’t feel it. His eye adjusted to the darkness, and he realized he was in a hospital, and the two figures were Chanyeol, along with some other fellow he didn’t recognize. An old friend? No, he has never seen that man in his life.

“Chanyeol, wake up.”

“No..”

Minseok laughed dryly from his faint whine, it was difficult to see and grabbed the pillow he slept on then threw it at him. It also hit the man by mistake and he woke up aggressively, hitting Chanyeol in the face then nearly falling off the chair.

“Merde–!”

“Ow!”

They both yelled and Minseok quickly shushed them.

“You realize it’s.. three in the morning right?”

Minseok looked at the clock on the wall, he had almost forgotten how to tell time. Chanyeol sighed, rubbing his eyes while Doyoung picked up his beret.

“Sorry.”

“Pardon me.”

Doyoung replied politely.

“Who are you?”

“I was the one who donated blood, my name is Kim Doyoung.”

“Why are you here?”

“Sorry, I was worried for your health and wanted to thank you for coming back. The cure and all, thank you very much.”

“Oh.. of course, thank you.”

“I should leave.”

Doyoung stood up and opened the door, stepping out but Minseok held his arm out.

“Wait! Don’t leave.”

“I won’t, but I’ll give you and Chanyeol some alone time. The two who are soon to be married shall have a moment together, yes? Just knock when I’m allowed back in.”

Doyoung smiled and waved his hand, then shut the door behind him. Chanyeol and Minseok both stared at the door, if this was a cartoon Chanyeol would be sweating like it was 140 degrees in the hot summer. Minseok turned his head to him, not saying a word. Or if he was, Chanyeol beat him to it.

“I’m sorry oh my god, I know you said yes at the time but you didn’t love me. I can take back the proposal, I was very emotional at the time because I missed you–“

“It hasn’t been a day.”

“I missed you okay! And I was thinking back at our time together and kinda ranted to Doyoung about you.”

“You ranted to a man you don’t know..”

“Yes!”

Minseok sighed, covering his eyes from embarrassment but smiled, shaking his head. He then began to laugh. He didn’t know why, he found it hilarious.

“Oh my god, what am I going to do with you?”

Chanyeol sat there confused, he didn’t understand what he meant or why he was laughing. Then he could see the tears in the darkness and he stood from his seat, walking close to the bed until he took a seat next to him.

“Minseok, why are you crying? What’s so funny? Are you upset? I’m sorry.”

His laughter ceased. A few more tears slipping from his eyes, his fingers wiping them away then wiping his nose with a tissue from the bedside table. He stared down at the IV stuck in his forearm, then his hand reached to touch the bandage over his left eye. Then his hands reached for the end of the gown, pulling it up to look at the others. Chanyeol saw he was naked and quickly looked away. Why did they take off all his clothes? Minseok dropped the gown with a soft sigh, he caught Chanyeol’s hands in sight and took them in his own. It caught his attention and the male looked back at him, to find Minseok holding his hand close to his bruised cheeks. It hurt, but the warmth from his hand made everything alright.

“I love you.”

The mumble was all it took for Chanyeol to start sniffling, then break out in tears. He hid his face in Minseok’s shoulder, letting the stress finally flow out of him in an emotional breakdown. Chanyeol finally replied.

“I love you too, I love you so much. So so much.”

“I’ll marry you Chanyeol..”

Minseok whispered against his head of hair, placing a gentle kiss before lifting his face with his three fingers beneath his chin, pressing his lips against Chanyeol’s. He kept his eyes open, and he saw Minseok close his eyes. 

Before, Chanyeol thought Minseok’s eyes looked just like his when he looked at him. He was wrong. He could see the difference from the beach house a few days ago to today at the hospital, they were brighter and they were larger. How could he not have realized?

Behind the door, Doyoung waited outside patiently with his phone in his hand then he looked up when he felt a presence. He saw Mr. Seo.

“Hello? Are you a relative to this patient?”

“Non, je ne suis pas?”

“Are you lost..?”

The doctor was confused and didn’t understand the language. Doyoung only smiled.

“Je suis Doyoung.”

“Your name is Doyoung?”

“Au revoir!”

Doyoung slammed his fist into his stomach, he watched as the doctor coughed before collapsing onto the ground. He sighed, pushing his body away with his foot, until he heard a knock. With a turn of his heel, he smiled at the door.

“Coming.”

 

Jongdae burst out laughing from the sight of Doyoung, which confused both Minseok and Chanyeol when they entered his large apartment.

“God, you guys really are idiots. If you knew me how did you not know of him? That’s a wanted murderer bro.”

“It’s not that big of a shock, or frightening, considering we already have two in our group.”

“Let’s add a third, yeah?”

Doyoung grinned with a toothpick hanging from his mouth. He was more known in France, Italy, and Spain, so Europe. He had a nickname, the Handsome Devil, notorious for the beautiful smile he gave his victims and witnesses. Doyoung did it for fun and wasn’t ordered by anyone, unlike Jongdae who was payed for it.

“It gets boring. And I was visiting here, so when I saw on the news you guys had also arrived and came with a cure, why not pay a visit? Then a doctor came yelling for anyone with positive or negative blood type B or O, and coincidentally I was your guy. It’s fate perhaps?”

“For the most part, I don’t care what you do for a living especially since you practically saved my life.”

“Let’s not get sentimental, Minseok.”

Doyoung gave the impression he was near tears, before he laughed to show he was only kidding. Jongdae looked up when he heard a knock on his door.

“It’s open!”

Sehun came through the door with a box, he seemed to be having difficulty holding.

“Sorry for intruding,”

He gently placed down the box on the bed, Jongdae’s eyes moved from the present with a baby blue colored bow on top to Sehun.

“How cliché.”

“Open it.”

The three nosy men crowded around the bed to see what Sehun had decided to buy him. Jongdae slowly lifted the lid, but then he saw something white burst from the box and he fell back on his bed when he felt it jump onto his chest. He opened his eyes to see a mixed poodle, with soft puffy fur and stared at him with dark brown eyes, the same color of the bow was its collar color. It read Honey.

“She was named Eun, but I liked the name Honey. I know you lost Sugar and Honey is similar to her name, cause it’s sweet you know.”

As Jongdae sat up, Honey moved back before placing her paws on his knees as she sniffed his scent. Sehun was beginning to feel afraid he didn’t like his gift.

“If you don’t like her name, we can change it. Or if you don’t want her..”

“I want her..”

Jongdae reached up and wiped his eyes, then quietly chuckled when Honey walked closer and her paws were now on his chest, she began to lick away his tears.

“I love her, I love the name. My Honey.”

He held her paws and rubbed his nose against hers, already fallen in love with his new dog. She crawled into his lap and walked in a few circles before relaxing. Jongdae ran his hand up and down her fur then looked up at them, laughing a bit awkwardly.

“Ah, yeah, anyway– when is the wedding?”

“Don’t you know how long it takes to prepare a wedding?”

“Those are hetero weddings, Doyoung, nobody is getting pregnant.”

Jongdae brushed his comment off immediately.

“I want it to be cold for our honeymoon, do people still do that?”

“Heteros do.”

Doyoung was ready to hit him for interrupting Minseok but the couple ignored it.

“It will be August in two weeks. If we start now and get things done, we can finish planning in four months and have our wedding along with honeymoon in December.” 

“I take back my words actually, I’d rather go home and drink after the wedding.”

“That’s fine with me.”

“Can I be the best man?”

Doyoung, Sehun, and Jongdae asked in sync with each other with their hands raised.

 

“I, Park Chanyeol, take Kim Minseok to be my wedded husband. To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in healthy, to love and to cherish, til death do us part.”

Chanyeol and Minseok had argued a few days before who would be walking down the aisle considering neither of them wanted to. Minseok didn’t want to, but Chanyeol pressured him to. It’s embarrassing, it’ll be cute is what he responded with. Minseok pulled the age card which extended the argument. It was until he got sick of it and agreed.

“I, Kim Minseok, take Park Chanyeol to be my wedded husband. To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in healthy, to love and to cherish, til death do us part.”

“Oh mon dieu.”

Doyoung whispered to himself, his hand placed over his chest where his heart was. He tried to prevent himself from tearing up, Jongdae quietly snickered next to him which earned a kick. Jongdae didn’t want to disturb, so he muttered threats to him until Sehun held his hand. A few relatives from Baekhyun and Yixing’s family had attended the wedding, rather fond of the two lovers who decided to marry at such an appropriate age. Not really though. When they first saw Minseok, they assumed he was nineteen and was a run away, but once they realized he was nearly thirty they happily congratulated him. Today, Chanyeol wore a black suit with leather lapels and black and white plaid collared shirt he wore beneath. He removed the dye from his hair so it would seem more ‘proper’ which influenced Minseok to go for a more natural look. He also removed the dye and renewed the dye with a dark brown, he had an undercut and parted his hair down the middle. The ends of his hair were a wavy look. Minseok wore the same suit but with the usual white collared button up beneath, a thin and short black, maroon, and white bow tie. The hair color choice was last minute, so Chanyeol was staring in awe from how handsome he looked until he noticed the stern look he received from not looking at Minseok’s face but hair. Chanyeol gave a faint apologetic smile. Minseok turned his head politely at the priest, with a small but professional smile on his face. As the vows came, he stared at him with his shoulders relaxed, he had never seen him so serene the moment he met him.

“I now see your longstanding love, I contend you both as wedded husbands.”

Minseok immediately took Chanyeol’s hand and pulled him forward, his hand meeting the back of his neck where their lips finally met. There was cheering and yelling from their friends, standing up and clapping loudly.

After the kiss, they popped the champagne. Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc, rosé. Chanyeol hesitantly took a sip from past experiences but was happy to realize it was sweet. Minseok hadn’t drank in so many months, it was one of his favorite things to do so it startled everyone in the room when he downed the whole think and poured another glass.

“That’s my husband!!”

Chanyeol happily announced, Minseok looked at him with an embarrassed expression but smiled with the glass meeting his lips for another taste. Jongdae was quick to cut the cake, popping his fingers in his mouth when cream appeared and ate once it was on his plate. Minseok took a bite and stuck his tongue out, he thought it was too sweet and was disgusted when watching Chanyeol eat it with ease.

“Dance!! Dance dance!”

Jongin hurried the newly weds, pushing them both towards an empty part of the room. Chanyeol took Minseok’s left hand while his other relaxed on his waist, Minseok’s other hand was placed firmly on his arm almost shoulder level. Chanyeol smiled, noticing he was a bit flustered to be dancing to a slow song in front of all his friends. He then reached up, pulling at the string attached to the medical eye patch Minseok wore to cover his milky white eye. He immediately stopped him by grabbing his hand, whispering to him.

“Chanyeol, no.”

“Minseok, let me see it.”

Chanyeol carefully removed it so he wouldn’t ruin his hair, before dropping it to the ground and returning his hands where they previously were. Minseok’s eyes were drifted to the corner of the room until Chanyeol whistled to catch his attention, his heterochromia eyes staring at him with a reluctant look. 

“I prefer without the eyepatch, your eye will always make me recall of the best day of my life. The day where it took everything in me to stay awake despite only the day before it was another day of risking everything. Above anything I have ever done successfully, when I looked you in the eye in the hospital, and you told me you loved me, it was the moment I felt most rewarded.”

Minseok sighed, puffing his cheeks out then began to sway the both of their bodies with smooth movements. He slid his feet with every turn, leading Chanyeol to where he was going next.

“Like you have ever succeeded at something legal.”

“You got me there. So, that means you’re my biggest snatch, right?”

“I suppose so.”

 

Minseok helped Chanyeol make it to the bed, dropping him onto it with a loud sigh of relief from the weight off his shoulders. He removed his coat, leaving only his button up and bow tie then tossing it on a nearby chair. Chanyeol only watched with a small smile, his elbow pushing against the mattress so he can support his body.

“Come lay down, baby.”

“You stink of cupcakes and your mouth tastes too sweet. We’re not doing it.”

“That wasn’t my goal, but if it were to turn out that way, I wouldn’t complain.”

Minseok rolled his eyes, sitting down on the bed so he can take off his shoes then felt a hand pull at his shirt.

“I want to shower, Chanyeol.”

“We’ll shower right now, I just want to relax and talk for a bit.”

He finally succumbed and collapsed on the bed, letting Chanyeol pull his arm so he can lay on his side and face each other. He laced their hands together, then stared into his eyes. The white eye always gave off an imperceptible look to others but he could see just as emotion as he could see in the other brown one. Minseok was.. unique. He was strong in ways more than one, enviable due to his looks and his personality. The person who is elusive to date or overall become an acquaintance with, he has a preference with the kinds of friends he wants and who he desires to date. Won’t take shit from anyone, a man capable of taking care of himself but wouldn’t mind someone being his complement. At times, he could be petulant and childish which was irritating to many yet brought petty satisfaction to himself, he couldn’t care less and only took note of the opinions given by the people he cares about.

“Wow..”

Chanyeol laughed when he realized he spoke out loud, causing Minseok to look confused.

“What? What’s with the wow?”

“I don’t know, I just love you, and how free you are.”

“That does not make any sense.”

“I literally would die for you, I love you so much. I want to give you everything in the world, I don’t care if someone looks at you and thinks you’re weird. Or if a child tells their parent this man is scaring me.”

“Chanyeol, is this about my eye again?”

Minseok sighed, sitting up and scratching his head. Chanyeol sat up next to him, leaning forward so he can get a look at him. He pushed him back by the chest.

“You’re drunk, stop it.”

“Minseok, I really can’t believe you, how can you be so stupid?”

His eyes shot open in shock and he stood up, opened his mouth, ready to yell at him for insulting him but Chanyeol beat him to it.

“All these months being with you, I have always been intimidated by you and how you are so much better than me. As we became closer, I realized you are just the same as me. We’re both stupid, we’re both young and in love, both insecure and probably are seen as the weirdest couple out there. One is a murderer who had red hair and the other has a white eye used to have silver hair. Yes, I’m done with my past, I kinda want my hair back though, but I don’t care. You shouldn’t either, when I saw you wearing the medical eye patch Mr. Seo gave you at the ceremony I had never been more offended in my life. That’s why I took it off, I wanted to see it, I wanted our friends to see it I wanted the families there to see it– I wanted the damn priest to see it. So, I let them see my handsome husband who has a disability from being so badass, I let them see the man I love and everything. If I could, I would have take off your clothes and let them see your scars but I know you would immediately ask for divorce papers. Minseok, I love you and everything that comes along with you, like your attitude, your scars, your emotions and your doubts, your insecurities and your stressful moments, your imperfections I see as perfections. Everything. From the last hair on your head, to the beauty marks scattered across your entire body. You have devoured my mind and soul with your being.”

Silence was shared.

“That was in our vows, Minseok. To love and cherish each other. Til death do us part.”

“No one knows what happens after death Chanyeol. We could be together, we could not, I could be in hell and you could be in heaven. Or we will be stuck in a void of darkness with no thoughts or remembrance of each other, but it doesn’t matter. Eventually, we will all turn to nothing but dust. One day, the Earth will be swallowed by the universe and we will finally meet our inevitable doom. What we have here doesn’t matter to anyone, to God, if there is a God, he or she doesn’t care about our love. Our love to God is nothing but a declaration, an illusive shout into the sky. It doesn’t matter though, does it? Those Lurkers could have tore us apart, people here could try to, anything can try to pull us apart only for it to push us closer together. If something as negative tries to end us, even if it could be me or you, let us remember that if it is hard to stay together it will hurt more to be apart. We have went through too much, you have gone under my skin and I don’t want to waste my time trying to find you and take you out. Death.. death can laugh in my face, it has. It actually has, perhaps not literally but it felt like it. He gave me a chance, so I’m here. My body gave me a chance, I gave me a chance so I’m here.”

Love is nonsensical. So is life and death. It doesn’t matter though. Because in the end, the two will meet eye to eye and realize even if love is useless, it is a blissful thing to have.

“Let’s shower, yeah?”

Chanyeol smiled, leaving the bed to stand and Minseok nodded. He felt his hand on his lower back, before it began to slide upwards and grasp his shoulder gently. Minseok turned his head, he saw Chanyeol and Chanyeol saw him. And he smiled back at him.

“Yeah.”


End file.
